Is Coffee Good For Me
Yes.
In moderation, coffee seems to be good for most people thats 3 to 5 cups daily, or up to 400 milligrams of caffeine.
The evidence is pretty consistent that coffee is associated with a lower risk of mortality, said Erikka Loftfield, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute who has studied the beverage.
For years, coffee was believed to be a possible carcinogen, but the 2015 Dietary Guidelineshelped to change perception.For the first time, moderate coffee drinking was included as part of a healthy diet. When researchers controlled for lifestyle factors, like howmany heavy coffee drinkers also smoked, the data tipped in coffees favor.
A large 2017 review on coffee consumption and human healthin the British Medical Journal also foundthat most of the time, coffee was associated with a benefit, rather than a harm. In examining more than 200 reviews of previous studies, the authors observed that moderate coffee drinkers had less cardiovascular disease, and premature death from all causes, including heart attacks and stroke, than those skipping the beverage.
In addition, experts say some ofthe strongest protective effects may be with Type 2 diabetes, Parkinsons disease, and liver conditions such as cirrhosis, liver cancer and chronic liver disease. For example, having about five cups of coffee a day, instead of none, is correlated with a 30 percent decreased risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to a meta-analysis of 30 studies.
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Clinical And Neuropsychological Assessments
All participants were administered standardized clinical assessments by trained board-certified psychiatrists based on the KBASE clinical assessment protocol which incorporated the CERAD-K clinical assessment, which incorporates the CERAD-K. All subjects were also given a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment battery, administered by a clinical neuropsychologist or trained psychometrists according to a standardized protocol incorporating the CERAD-K neuropsychological battery. Details on full assessment battery were described previously.
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Should I Start Pounding Down More Coffee
Depends on your goals in life.
If you are enjoying the drink in moderation, doctors say continue onward, and savor those sips. And for those patients with a sensitivity to the beverage, Dr. Sophie Balzora, a gastroenterologist, weighs the benefits and risks very carefully. The clinical associate professor of medicine at N.Y.U. School of Medicine understands its cultural significance, and knows to tread lightly. As she put it: Robbing people of their coffee seems cruel.
Risks Of Coffee Consumption In Diabetes
Coffee is a health benefit. However, it also has some side effects, which may include
- Anxiety -Individuals suffering from anxiety should keep a check on their coffee consumption.
- Nervousness If a person consumes too much caffeine, it induces a flight or fight response in the individuals body. Which may further cause jitters and nervousness.
- Restlessness A person may feel restless after coffee consumption. Too much energy provided by the coffee may cause restlessness.
- Coffee consumption should be limited daily. Teens and young adults should only consume 100 gms each day. If one exceeds the limit it may be fatal for the individual.
Coffee only prevents diabetes by lowering sugar levels and not curing it. If you consume coffee daily, it may prove to be beneficial.
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Coffee Reduces The Risk Of Parkinsons Disease
Apart from giving you energy and helping to burn fat, coffee also has some disease prevention qualities as well . Coffee can help to decrease your relative risk to a number of serious diseases, one of which is Parkinsons disease.
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There are quite a few studies that have found coffee can significantly reduce the risk of Parkinsons. One study reported that a cup of coffee contributes to a substantial 31% decrease in risk.
Patients usually begin developing the disease around age 60, and many live between 10 and 20 years after being diagnosed. Aging Care
Other studies have found even greater risk reduction when controlling for outside factors like smoking and drinking alcohol. One such study reported a 58% reduced risk in both men and women. Another found, when consuming five or more cups per day, men had a 61% reduced risk and women had a 60% reduced risk.
Although the exact mechanism for coffees Parkinsons-demolishing powers is still unclear, one research study reported that it is most likely related to the effect its caffeine content has on the central nervous system and not some other nutrient.
Can Coffee Make Alzheimers Symptoms Worse
While many studies state that coffee consumption is beneficial some say that drinking coffee may make the symptoms of Alzheimers worse.
An example of such a study was done by experts from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
They reported that a study on mice revealed that exposure to caffeine for long periods is likely to increase behavioral symptoms of the illness, like anxiety.
The study reported that mice who were on caffeinated water have greater levels of BPSD including neophobia and anxiety. They also said that caffeine has little benefit for memory and learning in rodents.
The authors of the research hence, concluded that professionals need to be careful when recommending coffee or other products with caffeine to persons with Alzheimers.
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Coffee Reduces Gout In Men
Last but not least, coffee can help curb the risk of gout. In case you arent familiar, gout is a condition in which defective metabolism of uric acid can cause arthritis. In most cases, gout affects the big toe, but it can also cause swelling and pain in other joints of the leg.
A 2007 study found that coffee, not just caffeine, can significantly decrease the risk of gout in men, by lowering levels of uric acid in the body.
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The relationship between coffee consumption and gout
Drinking six or more cups of coffee a day was associated with a 40% decrease in the risk of gout, but, unfortunately, drinking 5 or fewer cups a day yielded less than a 10% reduction in risk.
Another study, published in 2010, found similar results for women .
The study showed that coffee can help reduce the risk of gout in women, although the impact was more significant than that in men, with 4 cups a day yielding almost a 60% reduced risk.
Unfortunately, sugar seems to reverse these benefits.
A study conducted on the relationship between sugar consumption and the risk of gout found a positive link between increased levels of sugar consumption and cases of gout. So, considering this, its best to stick with just a black cup and avoid the sugar .
Coffee Protects Your Liver
Aside from being your brains best friend, coffee also has an interesting relationship with some of your other, equally vital organs.
Your liver has benefited from a bromance with coffee ever since they first met. After all, coffee is who your liver calls after a night of drinking, as it has been proven that some of the active ingredients in coffee protect your liver from alcoholic cirrhosis . Cirrhosis is a disease in which damaged liver cells are replaced by scar tissue, leading to a severe loss of liver function as if thats not bad enough, its also associated with an increased risk of liver cancer.
The results of the study found that there was an inverse relationship between regular coffee consumption and the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis i.e. The more coffee you drink, the less your risk of alcoholic cirrhosis.
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Interestingly, another, similar study, showed that coffee can help protect against nonalcoholic cirrhosis as well although the causes of N.A cirrhosis are still unknown.
The inverse relationship between coffee consumption and cirrhosis only increases with greater coffee consumption, and over long periods of time say 40 years your chance of getting cirrhosis decreases by 55%. However, remember what I said about moderation, but more on that later.
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It Gives You A Energy Boost
I know this point seems rather obvious after all, its the reason most of you drink coffee but for that very same reason, it belongs in this list.
Do you know why caffeinated coffee has this effect? In science-y terms, caffeine induces a brain hypoperfusion which means that caffeine speeds up the brains energy metabolism while also decreasing blood flow. This triggers the release of norepinephrine, a chemical responsible for alertness and arousal . Instant coffee the verdict is still out.
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And just in case youve been living under a rock at the bottom of the ocean for your entire life, there is some very recent research showing the positive effects coffee has on energy. As stated above, coffee can not only dramatically improve your alertness but also improve your mental performance .
At night, consumption of caffeinated coffee produced comparable alertness ratings to the day-time ratings given when juice was drunk. Overall, these results clearly demonstrate the beneficial effects of consuming caffeinated coffee, and show that this effect is comparable in the day and night. -Smith, A. P. et al., Investigation of the Effects of Coffee on Alertness and Performance during the Day and Night
Additionally, if consumed on a regular basis throughout the day, coffee can help to maintain mental and psychomotor performance.
But Im still not done! Some studies even indicate that coffee can improve physical endurance by 12%, but we will get into that a little later .
Regular Consumption Reduces The Risk Of Cancer
Not that health problems like Alzheimers, dementia and liver disease arent big deals, but holy shit, coffee can help prevent cancer! And not just one or two types of cancers coffee can help to reduce cancer risk in many of your bodys vital organs.
According to the CDC, 8% US adults were diagnosed with some type of cancer in 2014 .
One study has shown that coffee consumption is linked to a reduced risk of bladder, breast, leukaemia, prostate, and pancreatic cancers, with an impressive but wait, theres more list.
In subgroup analyses, we noted that, coffee drinking was associated with a reduced risk of bladder, breast, buccal and pharyngeal, colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, hepatocellular, leukemic, pancreatic, and prostate cancers. Yu, X. et al., Coffee consumption and risk of cancers: a meta-analysis of cohort studies
Now, lets dive a little deeper and look at some of the numbers :
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- Drinking 1-4 cups of coffee a day can reduce your risk of colorectal cancer by 15%, and drinking 4-6 cups a day can reduce your risk by 26%.
- Drinking 2 cups of coffee every day has been associated with a 43% reduced risk of liver cancer.
- Daily coffee consumption has been associated with a 20% reduced risk of endometrial cancer, with that risk decreasing by 7% with each cup.
- Consuming five or more cups of coffee a day has been linked to a 40% decrease in the risk of glioma .
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Coffee Protects You Against Alzheimers And Dementia
Spoiler alert: coffee improves cognitive performance. Total shocker, I know, but for all of you non-believers, take a seat and prepare for some knowledge. Ill dive into aspects like general performance, alertness, and memory later, and for now, Ill focus on Alzheimers disease and dementia .
There have been numerous studies to show that regular coffee consumption is related to a decreased risk of Alzheimers and dementia.
One of these studies reported that drinking 3-5 cups a day, from midlife on, can reduce the risk of both Alzheimers and dementia by 65%. A second study found caffeine to be the primary factor in coffees preventive qualities. One of the researchers of the study, Dr. Arendash, was quoted saying:
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The study also noted that coffee was the major source of caffeine intake for the research participants.
Other studies have tried to pinpoint exactly what in caffeine is helping to halt the onset of these diseases. A 2014 study found that caffeine blocks various tau receptors . Another study found that caffeinated coffee increased GCSF a substance greatly decreased in Alzheimers patients levels in the bloodstream.
Measurement Of Cerebral A Deposition
All participants underwent simultaneous three-dimensional Pittsburg compound B -positron emission tomography and T1-weighted MRI scans using a 3.0T Biograph mMR scanner according to the manufacturers guidelines. The details of PiB-PET acquisition and preprocessing were described in our previous report. An AAL algorithm and a region-combining method were applied to determine the regions of interest for characterization of PiB retention levels in the frontal, lateral parietal, posterior cingulate-precuneus, and lateral temporal regions. The standardized uptake value ratio values for each ROI were calculated by dividing the mean value for all voxels within each ROI by the mean cerebellar uptake value on the same image. Each participant was classified as A positive if the SUVR value was > 1.4 in at least one of the four ROIs,. Considering the bimodal distribution of our PiB data, only A positivity was used as an outcome variable,.
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Caffeine May Modulate Pd Pathology By Regulating Autophagy Activity
Using an -Syn fibril model of PD, we recently have provided the first evidence that caffeine can attenuate abnormal -Syn aggregation and neurotoxicity by re-establishing autophagy activity in animal models of PD . Specifically, chronic caffeine treatment did not affect autophagy processes in the normal mice striatum, but did selectively reverse -Syn-induced defects in macroautophagy and CMA . Thus, caffeine may represent a novel pharmacological therapy for PD by targeting autophagy pathway. This study collaborates with the previous study showing that caffeine-induced autophagy protected against human prion protein peptide -triggered apoptosis in a SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line. Therefore, autophagy enhanced by caffeine may be a valid therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative diseases such as PD and prion .
Busting Common Myths About Coffee And Health
There are a lot of myths around coffee some strange, but some actually believable. Hopefully, with this list, weve already debunked some of those myths, yet there are still some out there we havent addressed.
What most of these more believable myths have in common is that there is some science behind them, but not completely foolproof science. Lets take a closer look at some of these myths:
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Drinking Coffee May Protect Some People Against Parkinsons
A recent study found lower levels of caffeine in the blood of people with Parkinsons disease. The study compared people with Parkinsons who carry a particular genetic mutation known to increase Parkinsons risk with people who carry the same mutation but do not have the disease.
Parkinsons disease is a progressive brain disorder characterized by tremors, rigidity in the limbs and torso, and movement and balance problems. People with the condition also have an increased risk of depression and dementia.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, more than 1 million people in North America and more than 4 million people worldwide have Parkinsons disease. In the United States, about 60,000 people receive a diagnosis each year.
Around 15% of people with the disease have a family history of Parkinsons, which suggests they inherited genes that increased their risk of developing the condition. However, most cases result from a complex, poorly understood interaction of genetic and environmental factors.
Several environmental factors, such as head trauma, chemicals, and drugs, have associations with increased risk, whereas exercise has associations with reduced risk.
A 2010 review of previous research found that the more caffeine people regularly consumed, the lower their risk of developing Parkinsons.
Dr. Grace Crotty, who led the research, says:
The authors published the study in the journal Neurology.
Caffeine Modulates Neuroinflammation In Pd
The mechanisms underlying anti-neuroinflammation by caffeine may involve the antagonism of the A2AR, the major molecular target . A2ARs affords neuroprotection through the control of microglia reactivity and neuroinflammation. Notably, pharmacological blockade or genetic deletion of A2AR produces similar anti-neuroinflammatory and neuroprotective effects as with caffeine in several experimental models of PD . For example, enhanced reactive astrogliosis and NF-B p65 activation around the injection site in hippocampus in an -Syn transmission mouse model of PD, and these -Syn-triggered neuroinflammatory responses were largely prevented in A2AR KO mice . In the well-established -Syn fibril model of PD, chronic caffeine treatment largely reverted the -Syn-induced microglial activation and astrogliosis in the striatum in mice . Moreover, in A2AR antagonists also control neuroinflammation , of synaptopathy and -amyloid processing in AD models. Thus, caffeine may exert anti-neuroinflammation and neuroprotection effect in PD by targeting the A2ARs.
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Does The Way Coffee Is Prepared Matter
Yes. Do you prefer a dark or light roast? Coarse grinding or fine? Arabica or robusta?
All of these different aspects affect the taste, but also affect the compounds within the coffees, said Neal Freedman, a senior investigator with the National Cancer Institute. But its not clear at all how these different levels of compounds may be related to health.
Roasting, for example, reduces the amount of chlorogenic acids, but other antioxidant compounds are formed. Espresso has the highest concentration of many compounds because it has less water than drip coffee.
A study in JAMA Internal Medicine examined the coffee habits of nearly 500,000 people in the U.K. and found that it didnt matter if they drank one cup or chain-drank eight regular or decaf or whether they were fast metabolizers of coffee or slow. They were linked to a lower risk of death from all causes, except with instant coffee, the evidence was weaker.
The way you prepare your cup of joe may influence your cholesterol levels, too. The one coffee we know not suitable to be drinking is the boiled coffee, said Marilyn C. Cornelis, an assistant professor in preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-author of the JAMA Internal Medicine study.
Examples of this include the plunge-happy French press, Scandinavian coffee, or Greek and Turkish coffee the kind commonly consumed in the Middle East.