Like the New England weather at Harvard, if you don’t like current scientific findings on new health topics, wait five minutes, and it may change. Coffee lovers and cancer patients worldwide hope this recent one remains the same, especially concerning coffee’s impact on prostate cancer.
In part one and two of this three-part blog, we discussed coffee’s positive effect on Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer, depression, suicide and how coffee is now considered the second healthiest beverage after water.
The conclusion, according to Nutritionfacts.org, and based on all the best studies to date listed in this article, is that coffee consumption may indeed be associated with a small reduction in mortality, on the order of a 3 percent lower risk of premature death for each cup of coffee consumed daily.
If coffee is good for the body is it also good for the spirit? Yes!
The Harvard Gazette explained that caffeine could lower the risk of depression among coffee drinkers because it stimulates the central nervous system which may act as a mild antidepressant by boosting production of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline.
Harvard University researchers discovered that people who drank two or more cups of coffee each day appeared to have about half the suicide risk compared to non-coffee drinkers. A Kaiser Permanente study found that people who drank more than six cups a day were 80 percent less likely to commit suicide. According to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) drinking several cups of coffee daily appears to reduce the risk of suicide in men and women by about 50 percent. The new study was published online July 2, 2018, in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry.
“Unlike previous investigations, we were able to assess association of consumption of caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages, and we identify caffeine as the most likely candidate of any putative protective effect of coffee,” said lead researcher Michel Lucas, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.
Your takeaway message of these studies? The benefits far outweigh the risks.
Dr. Marc Gunter, author of the European study summed up the benefits of drinking coffee when he stated, “The takeaway message would be that drinking a couple cups of coffee a day doesn’t do you any harm, and actually, it might be doing you some good.”
Dr. Gunter’s summation was seconded by Dr. Veronica Wendy Setiawan, associate professor of preventative medicine at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, who led the study on nonwhite populations, when she said, “These studies and the previous studies suggest that for a majority of people, there’s no long-term harm from drinking coffee. Moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle.”
For years my non-coffee-drinking husband would “tisk, tisk” my morning coffee routine and follow it up with, “Be stubborn about your health despite proof that coffee is bad for you. Just sayin’.” The current research is a new day dawning because now my husband brings me coffee in bed. And sometimes, to be sure it is perfect before saying, “This cup is for you,” he will even sneak a sip or two.
I know, I know! I promised not to rhyme. But, my coffee made me do it just one more time. I’m done!
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is a three-time Breast Cancer Survivor, as seen on Dr. Oz Show, DOCTORS, NBC, and CBS, whose dreams diagnose her illness, and was a Dream Research Participant for Dr. Larry Burk‘s Dream Research. They co-wrote, Dreams That Can Save Your Life. She is a TV Producer/Host and award-winning Author/Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and connecting with Inner-guidance through Dreams for success in health, wealth, and relationships. Learn more @ KathleenOKeefeKanavos.com
Photo credit:
httpspixabay.comencup-coffee-cup-cup-of-coffee-moon-1956716Pixel2013 Free for Commercial Use No attribution required
Article Research for Parts one, two and three.
Prostate Cancer Foundation- https://www.pcf.org/new-study-shows-coffee-health-benefits/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpv2c1KeD3QIV3I2zCh3eOQrTEAAYASAAEgKWMvD_BwE
What Do You Get From Drinking Coffee? – Medtrend, https://medtrend.org/what-do-you-get-from-drinking-coffee/
New Study Coffee Health Benefits- https://www.pcf.org/new-study-shows-coffee-health-benefits/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpv2c1KeD3QIV3I2zCh3eOQrTEAAYASAAEgKWMvD_BwE
Nutritional Facts.org- https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/coffee/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpv2c1KeD3QIV3I2zCh3eOQrTEAAYAiAAEgIaI_D_BwE
Coffee | Health Topics | Nutritionfacts.org, https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/coffee/
US Beverage Panel Recommendations http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/nutrans/policy/beverage/us-beverage-panel/panel_recommendations
New Study Shows Coffee Health Benefits – Pcf, https://www.pcf.org/new-study-shows-coffee-health-benefits/
Study links coffee consumption to decreased risk of colorectal cancer https://news.usc.edu/97761/new-study-links-coffee-consumption-to-decreased-risk-of-colorectal-cancer/
April issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/
Coffee Drinking Tied To Lower Risk Of Suicide – Harvard .., https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/07/drinking-coffee-may-reduce-risk-o
Dr. Mark Gunter https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.gunter/publications.html
Dr. Mark Coffee Drinking and Mortality in 10 European Countries: A Multinational Cohort Study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28693038
Dr. Veronica Setiawan https://keck.usc.edu/faculty-search/veronica-w-setiawan/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Veronica_Setiawan
Harvard Gazette- https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/07/drinking-coffee-may-reduce-risk-of-suicide-by-50/
