There’s more good news for coffee lovers in the health department. A new study says moderate coffee consumption—regular or decaf--can lower your risk of dying by as much as 16%. But before you reach for another cup of joe, know that these results are limited by factors such as age, health and lifestyle. Also, coffee didn’t reduce the risk of death from one big health concern.

Study Specifics

This study followed 400,000 men and women age 50 – 71 enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study between 1995 and 1996. Each participant provided details about their coffee consumption, ranging from zero to a maximum category of six cups a day or more.

None of the participants had a history of cancer, stroke or heart disease when the study started. Then the health of each was tracked through 2008 or until death.

At first, the results indicated that coffee might increase the risk of death. Among those that didn’t drink coffee 13% of men and 10% percent of women died between 1995 and 2008, compared to 19% of men and 15% of women who drank six or more cups a day.

But when the researchers excluded coffee drinkers that also smoked, abused alcohol and ate lots of red meat, they found a completely different picture. Now men who drank two to more than six cups of coffee a day were about 10% less likely to die during the study than non-drinkers. For women, there was up to a 16% reduced risk of death in coffee drinkers compared to non-drinkers.

The protective effect appeared greater among those who drank more than one cup a day, but little difference was seen between two cups a day and six cups a day.

What a Way to Go

The results showed a lower overall risk of dying for specific health concerns: cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness, stroke, diabetes, infections, and injuries and accidents.

Coffee drinking was not linked to a reduction in cancer fatalities among women, and had only a marginal protective impact on cancer deaths among men.

Not for Everyone

Study authors recommend talking to your doctor before upping coffee consumption because your personal health history might affect the advice you receive.

Also, pediatricians generally advise against caffeinated coffee for children and recommend limiting coffee in adolescents.  Like many stimulants, coffee can disrupt sleep patterns and become addictive.

Questions Remain

This new study seems to confirm what previous research has suggested: that coffee drinking in moderation is not bad for healthy adults.

But how coffee delivered the apparent benefits in this study remains a mystery. Besides caffeine, coffee contains antioxidants, phytochemicals and thousands of compounds that may hold the answer to that million dollar question.

Sources:

Reuters Health

Health Finder

Live Strong

Americans love their coffee, but it appears coffee doesn’t love us equally—or at least in the same way-- depending on your gender. While you might expect there to be differences in how coffee affects men versus women, some might surprise you.

Here’s what research tells us about the benefits (or downsides) of coffee, by gender:

Women

• A study by psychologists at Bristol University found drinking caffeinated coffee boosts a woman’s performance in stressful situations but has the opposite effect on men. It seems to enhance a woman’s confidence and social functioning.
• Another study found that women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day were 15 percent less likely to develop depression than those who drank one cup of coffee or less per week.
• A Swedish study found that coffee may provide a protective effect for a particular type of breast cancer called antiestrogen-resistant estrogen-receptor or (ER)-negative breast cancer.

Men

• Coffee seems to protect men, but not women against Parkinson’s disease. One possible explanation for the sex difference may be that estrogen and caffeine need the same enzymes to be metabolized, and estrogen captures those enzymes.
• British researchers found the men’s ability to perform well under stress was ‘greatly impaired’ if they had drank too much caffeinated coffee—especially in group situations. The researchers believe that the difference is due to the more aggressive nature of men’s “fight or flight” response.
• Harvard researchers who followed nearly 50,000 men for 20 years found that those who drank the most coffee—six or more cups a day of regular or decaf—were 60 percent less likely to develop advanced prostate cancer than guys who didn’t drink any brew. That figure dropped to 30 percent for men who drank one to three cups per day.
• A Finnish study of middle aged men found that heavy coffee drinkers had a decreased risk of depression compared to non-drinkers. No such association was found among tea drinkers. Other studies have found that coffee can heighten anxiety in men more so than women who tend to have increased feelings of confidence and self-esteem from drinking coffee.

Equal Opportunity Actions and Benefits

Coffee drinking in moderation has been linked to many health benefits in both men and women, including:

• Decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, gallstones, and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease.
• Fewer cases of certain cancers (colon and liver), heart rhythm problems and strokes

Researchers believe some of these benefits are conveyed through the antioxidant properties of coffee as well as other nutrients including the minerals magnesium and chromium.

As for potential down-sides to coffee consumption, two substances in coffee — kahweol and cafestol — raise cholesterol levels. Paper filters capture these substances, but that doesn’t help the many people who now drink non-filtered coffee drinks, such as lattes.

More than four cups of coffee a day can also lead to some unpleasant effects including:

• Insomnia
• Nervousness
• Restlessness
• Irritability
• Stomach upset
• Fast heartbeat
• Muscle tremors

Sources:

Journal of the National Cancer Institute

PubMed

University of Bristol

WebMD

Harvard Health Publications

Science Daily

Mayo Clinic

Did you know that about 2.5 percent of us carry the antibiotic resistant “superbug” MRSA in our noses all the time? While medical experts aren’t sure if its presence there is harmful, a new study may have uncovered a way to rid your nose of this hitchhiker.

Researchers have found that those who drink hot coffee or tea were about half as likely to have MRSA in their nasal passages as people who drank no hot tea or coffee. No such association was found in drinking iced tea or soda. The study notes that coffee and tea have been shown to have antimicrobial effects in other settings.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a particularly nasty pathogen that has developed a resistance to the antibiotic methicillin, one of our main lines of defense against such bacteria. The bacteria can cause infection when they enter the body through a cut, sore, catheter, or breathing tube. The infection can be minor and local such as a bug bite, or more serious involving the heart, lung, blood, or bone.

When MRSA infections do occur, it is typically through one of two scenarios:

• Community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections occur in otherwise healthy people who have not recently been in the hospital. The infections have occurred among athletes who share equipment or personal items (such as towels or razors) and children in daycare facilities. Members of the military and those who get tattoos are also at risk. The number of CA-MRSA cases is increasing.
• Healthcare-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) infections occur in people who are or have recently been in a hospital or other healthcare facility. Those who have been hospitalized or had surgery within the past year are at increased risk. MRSA bacteria are responsible for a large percentage of hospital-acquired staph infections. The rate of MRSA infections in healthcare facilities has been climbing steadily in recent years.

The study suggested that further research is warranted before we consider using coffee and tea to combat MRSA infections system-wide. In the meantime, enjoy your next cup of tea or joe knowing it just might keep your own nose MRSA-free.

Sources:

CBS News

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institutes of Health: National Library of Medicine

Over the past year or so, the emerging benefits of drinking coffee -- protecting your DNA and lessening your type 2 diabetes risks, for example -- appear to be far outweighing the risks in the world of science.

This positive turn may be the result of researchers better understanding what happens chemically when coffee beans are roasted that brings out a different set of antioxidant benefits, a product of the Maillard reaction, the interaction between amino acids and sugars when foods are exposed to high heat.

Raw green coffee beans possess chlorogenic acids, natural antioxidants with antibacterial and antiviral qualities that are almost completely lost during the roasting process. Fortunately, a new set of antioxidants take their place, thanks to the Malliard reaction, that are more stable and help to remove free radicals, metabolic end-products linked to the aging process.

The tricky part is all in the roasting. Too much heat (think dark roast coffee blends), and those new antioxidants formed by the Maillard reaction break down. That's why you may want to skip the dark roast coffee and go straight for the medium blend and max out on the antioxidants.

Food Research International January 12, 2011

The Vancouver Sun February 3, 2011

ScienceDaily February 3, 2011

Occasionally, it almost seems magical that a hot beverage and flowers under our very noses have the power to fight diseases like brain cancer successfully, but they do, according to a pair of recent studies.

In one report, drinking less than a half-cup of coffee or tea daily or more was linked to a reduced risk of glioma, the most common form of brain tumor that starts in the spinal cord or brain by 34 percent. Also, the protective effect was connected only with gliomas and slightly stronger for men.

These results were such an eye-opener, one medical expert told HealthDayNews a drug that could reduce the risk of any disease by 34 percent would be considered a "great" one.

In the other study, narciclasine, a naturally occurring chemical in a bulb of the daffodil, may slow down the growth and spread of very aggressive cancer cells in tests on mice with grafted human melanoma brain metastatic cells. Even better, scientists suspect the effect of narciclasine on very aggressive cancer cells is selective, and doesn't harm normal cells.

Makes you wonder what scientists will discover next…

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 92, No. 5, p. 1145-1150, November 2010

healthfinder.gov October 20, 2010

The FASEB Journal, Vol. 24, No. 11, p. 4575-4584, November 2010

PhysOrg.com November 1, 2010

Because many of my friends and family still devote too much of their workdays drinking copious amounts of coffee, I've been keeping tabs lately on the health benefits of sipping black water, a mixed bag often leaning to the good.

This latest study -- coffee reducing a fractional amount of bodily DNA damage -- also swings toward the positive, although, I suspect, there's little chance that it wouldn't: One of the six scientific institutions involved in the study is the Nestle Research Center, located in Lausanne, Switzerland.

For the record, 38 patients were assigned to drink 27 ounces of either paper-filtered coffee or water every day for five days. Although researchers found no great changes to antioxidant levels in the blood among coffee drinkers, they did notice a measurable decline in DNA damage (12.3 percent fewer oxidized purines were formed).

If drinking 27 ounces of coffee daily sounds like a lot to some of you, a recent study I posted about coffee consumption and shrinking type 2 diabetes risks pointed out that 8 percent of the Native Americans patients who participated actually drank 12 or more cups each day, and enjoyed the greatest benefits too. That still impresses and scares me...

Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis August 13, 2010

NutraIngredients.com September 7, 2010

Add a pair of studies to the "pro" side of drinking coffee, this time linked to reducing one's risk of type 2 diabetes. Only a single catch: The more java one drinks, the smaller the risk.

After tracking the health of nearly 1,150 healthy, diabetes-free Native Americans between ages 45-74 for more than seven years in one study, scientists found patients who consumed the most coffee -- 12 cups or more every day -- enjoyed the biggest benefit: A 67 percent reduction in the risk of developing diabetes, compared to folks who don't drink it. Even more surprising was that 8 percent of the patients actually drank that much coffee every day.

Interestingly, drinking up to four cups of coffee was associated with just a 13 percent drop in a patient's risks of facing diabetes, but consuming as many as 11 cups raised one's level of protection only to 22 percent.

However, the risk reductions were a bit higher in a late 2009 Archives of Internal Medicine study, related not only to coffee, but decaffeinated coffee and tea as well. Folks who drank three or four cups of coffee every day lessened their risks of diabetes by about 25 percent compared to those who drank two cups or less.

And, surprisingly, reductions in diabetes risks were comparable or even higher among patients consuming more than three to four cups of decaf coffee (33 percent) and tea (20 percent).

Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases February 19, 2010

NutraIngredients-USA February 24, 2010

EurekAlert December 14, 2009

Studies are growing about the benefits of drinking coffee, with this latest one reporting the reduced risks of aggressive prostate cancer in men by as much as 60 percent compared to those who drank no coffee at all.

Researchers tracked the health of some 50,000 men who documented their intake of coffee every four years over the course of the two-decade-long study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Men who drank six or more cups of Joe every day (about 5 percent of the male patients surveyed) enjoyed a 60 percent drop in advanced cancer risks, but the benefits fell sharply based on how much a man drank. Drinking half as much coffee every day, about three cups, cut a man's risks of aggressive prostate cancer by only 20 percent.

Don't buy a bigger coffee pot of the office just yet, however. A recent report on coffee consumption, this time conducted in Europe, found higher intakes of caffeine may be responsible for ventricular arrhythmias, abnormal rapid heart rhythms originating in the lower ventricles of the heart.

Science Daily December 8, 2009

Wall Street Journal Health Blog December 8, 2009