For those who are coffee lovers, I think you will be happy for this good news. If you think coffee is not totally good for your body, then you should be aware of this. A new study shows that drinking up to six cups of coffee a day won’t shorten your life span, and for women that daily coffee habit may even protect against heart disease. I’ve learned these things from my professor during our class in one of my courses in DBA. So, I researched this news. Then I found out that this study conducted by Spanish researcher headed by Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia.
The Spanish researchers who conducted the study are excited about their findings, but they stop short of prescribing coffee jolts to all. “Our results suggest that long-term, regular coffee consumption does not increase the risk of death and probably has several beneficial effects on health,” said lead researcher Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia. Lopez-Garcia stressed that the findings may only hold true only for healthy folk. "People with any disease or condition should ask their doctor about their risk, because caffeine still has an acute effect on short-term increase of blood pressure," she said.
In the study, the Spanish team looked at the relationships between coffee drinking and the risks of dying from heart disease, cancer, or any cause in almost 42,000 men who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and more than 84,000 women who had participated in the Nurses' Health Study. At the study start, all participants were free of heart disease and cancer.
The results show that as coffee consumption increases, the overall risk of death decreases. The association is explained mostly by a decrease in [cardiovascular disease] deaths, Lopez-Garcia says. Women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day, for instance, had a 25% lower risk of dying from heart disease than non-drinkers [USA Today]. However, the study found no association between coffee drinking and cancer deaths.
The findings, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, do not pin down the cause of coffee’s apparent benefit, and researchers also say that the lower risk of death did not appear to be linked to caffeine as those who drank decaffeinated coffee also had lower death rates than those who did not drink coffee [Telegraph]. But a few different theories regarding coffee’s healthful qualities are percolating.
Coffee beans are chock-full of antioxidants, chemicals that can protect DNA from damage and promote cell survival. What’s more, coffee may also reduce inflammation inside the blood vessels, thereby lowering the risk of heart disease, Lopez-Garcia says [Science News].
Of all these benefits, then we might be confident that drinking coffee is totally advantageous. Although there have been findings that tell the benefits of coffee, we must also consider the adverse effect of drinking coffee especially for those who have prior diseases. It can cause osteoporosis and if you drink much, you may be too dependent on coffee. The best thing to do is to consult your doctor. There’s no best way to be sure of your health condition by asking your doctor. Remember, the study conducted for those people who don’t have any illnesses and they are not certain with the relationship between coffee drinking and cancer deaths.
PDIS