It is National Coffee Day in America. To celebrate, the likes of Mc Donald’s and Tim Hortons are giving away generous offers for caffeine addicts to celebrate.

Sadly, at home today, you will have to make do with paying. If you are a lover of the brown stuff, here is what you need to know about your beloved drink.

Caffeine acts as many things: a laxative, a stimulant and an anti-oxidant. It is classed as a drug and, unfortunately, does not cure a hangover.

Withdrawal symptoms can be strange: muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.

In good news, caffeine has been found to keep female brains younger. Research claims that women over 65 who drink 3 cups of coffee a day score better in memory tests.

Research by the Harvard medical School shows that drinking more coffee could lower the risk of skin cancer.

Coffee can cut down build-ups in the body because caffeine reduces both the hardening of cholesterol and the production of gallstones.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that men who drink up to 4 cups of coffee a day are less likely to develop Parkinsons than those who do not.

Caffeine is banned in sports when there is a high content in the body. It wakes you up by blocking the hormone adenosine. Muscles tighten up, the heart beats quicker and blood pressure is raised.

The story goes that coffee beans were discovered by a sheep herder in Ethiopia who noticed his sheep were hyper after eating red “cherries” from a certain plant.

England’s first coffee house opened in 1652 and somehow made its way to Ireland and into your cup today.

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