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Coffee may reduce cardiac, cancer risk in women
By HealthDay News

Good news for coffee lovers: Drinking up to six cups a day of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee won't shorten your life, a new study shows.

In fact, coffee might even help the heart, especially in women, the researchers found.

"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, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Autonoma University in Madrid.

Her team published its findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Lopez-Garcia stressed that the findings might 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 participants completed questionnaires every two or four years, including information about their coffee drinking, other dietary habits, smoking and health conditions. The research team looked at the frequency of death from any cause, death due to heart disease and death due to cancer among people with different coffee-drinking habits, comparing them to those who didn't drink the brew. They also controlled for other risk factors, including diet, smoking and body size.

The researchers found that women who drank two or three cups of caffeinated coffee daily had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up (from 1980 to 2004) than non-drinkers. Women also had an 18 percent lower death risk from a cause other than cancer or heart disease compared with non-coffee drinkers.

For men, drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily was a wash — not associated with either an increased or a decreased risk of death during the follow up, from 1986 to 2004.

The lower death rate was due primarily to a lower risk for heart disease deaths, the researchers found, while no link was discovered for coffee drinking and cancer deaths. The relationship did not seem to be directly related to caffeine, according to the researchers, since those who drank decaf also had a lower death rate than those who didn't drink either kind of coffee.

In the past, studies have come up with mixed results on the health effects of coffee, with some finding coffee increased the risk of death and others not.

More recently, research has found coffee drinking linked with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and some cancers, and preventing the development of cardiovascular disease, Lopez-Garcia said.

The strength of her current study, she said, includes the large number of participants and long follow-up period.

While the study is interesting, it does have its shortcomings, said Dr. Peter Galier, an internal medicine specialist, former chief of staff at Santa Monica UCLA and Orthopedic Hospital and associate professor of medicine at the University of California Los Angeles' David Geffen School of Medicine.

Self-reporting is one shortcoming, he said, because people might have under- or over-reported their coffee consumption, for instance.

"I think what this study tells us is not so much that coffee is the answer to everything," he said. But, rather, that some compounds, such as the antioxidants found in coffee, might be healthy.

Galier's advice for consumers: "I would tell them to weigh the subjective risk of their coffee consumption," he said. For instance, "if they love coffee, but it makes them jittery, and they can't sleep, they need to adjust it," he said. "Look at your symptoms," he tells patients. "If decaf is no problem, I wouldn't put a limit on that."

Ten Health Benefits of Coffee
Forbes.com
Susan Yara

It may be time to take coffee off the list of life's guilty pleasures. New studies indicate that moderate coffee drinkers can not only enjoy their morning java jolt, but they may also get significant health benefits in the process.

This is good news for the millions of people who cannot seem to get through the day without an infusion of caffeine. Coffee is one of the few drinks that is universal. From cafes in Paris to truck stops in Japan to pubs in New South Wales, whether served as a hot, black shot of espresso, diluted with milk and sugar, or rendered virtually unrecognizable in a Starbucks' Caramel Macchiato, more than $70 billion worth of coffee is sold every year, according to the London-based International Coffee Organization. In the U.S. alone--which is the world's largest coffee consumer--the National Coffee Association of U.S.A. (NCA) estimates that retail sales alone are $19.2 billion.

Go to Forbes.com to view a coffee slide show

Despite earlier beliefs that coffee has negative health effects, it is becoming increasingly clear that the opposite is in fact the case. Coffee consumption is now being linked to the lowered occurance of cases of certain cancers and chronic diseases. One study, conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health, shows that the risk for developing Type II diabetes is lower among regular coffee drinkers. There are even studies that link coffee to added endurance during physical workouts.

"The problem is that there is a preconceived notion that coffee is bad. It arrived relatively early when the studies weren't at the level of current studies," says Peter R. Martin, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. "There's no compelling evidence that shows it's harmful, and everyday there's more evidence that shows coffee is beneficial."

But that isn't an excuse for a person to increase their coffee intake. It means that a moderate daily dose could very well be justified, as long as one keeps in mind that too much coffee can make a person jittery and uncomfortable.

According to the NCA, 80% of Americans drink coffee, and more than half of the population drinks it every day. It's the popularity of coffee that makes it the main source of antioxidants for Americans.
"Plants produce a lot of antioxidants. These compounds prevent the sun from causing free-radical damage to the plants," says Professor Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. "That's why they may be good for the human body. I think antioxidants are the actual major causes of decreases in diseases. We consume fats and sugars that produce free radicals, and vitamins can't fight them alone. They need antioxidants."

Vinson and his team studied the content of antioxidants in various foods, like vegetables, fruits, tea and cocoa. They eventually decided to look at coffee as well. When they did, they found that both regular and decaffeinated coffee contain significant amounts of antioxidants, though Vinson does note that fruits and vegetables are more nutritious sources.

What kind of health benefits can people expect to receive from drinking coffee? According to Martin, "Predominantly in epidemiologic studies, there have been associations between coffee consumption and lowered rates of certain illnesses, like suicide, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, Type II diabetes, colon cancer and heart disease." (Epidemiologic studies are often historical trials that are not considered definitive by clinicians.)

While it doesn't matter what type of roast a person drinks--the benefits come from both Arabica or Robusta beans--Dr. Ernesto Illy, honorary chairman of espresso giant illycaffe S.p.A, whose coffee is sold in over 80 countries, says quality is what makes drinking coffee so pleasurable.

Dr. Illy has been drinking coffee all of his life and, at the age of 80, he's healthy and drinks four cups per day. His family-owned, Trieste-based company uses only the more expensive Arabica bean, combining quality and science to create what he calls a perfect cup of coffee. To him, aroma and taste are the key to enjoyment.
While more studies are being conducted to further explore coffee's effects, plenty of benefits are already known. Now if only the same could be said of martinis...

Quick Reference Info:

It's believed that a couple cups of coffee may help open airways for those with asthma. Though it should never be used to replace traditional asthma medicine, the caffeine in coffee is similar to a medicine called theophylline, which is used to treat asthma symptoms.

Coffee is known to increase concentration and short-term memory, so it can also help the brain function better while on long flights. Coffee's ability to make a person more alert will also help adjust a person's internal clock in a new time zone.

Caffeine's target region in the brain is the prefrontal cortex--the area associated with short-term memory. In this area, the brain compares current experiences with experiences stored in long-term memory--a pattern linked to creative thinking. Coffee is believed to be a cognitive enhancer and an aid in concentration, especially on intellectual tasks.

The most common reason people drink coffee (other than for pleasure) is to stay alert--especially in the morning. Research shows that coffee works best if spread throughout the course of the day. For instance, instead of drinking two cups at once, have one cup in the morning and another an hour or two later.

Studies show that the caffeine in coffee improves performance and endurance during intense physical exercise. Caffeine is also shown to boost short-term athletic performance and to help enhance concentration through it's effect on brain receptors. It's also known to slightly increase metabolism, which can help people lose weight.

Studies link coffee drinking and the prevention of degenerative diseases. Research shows that the more coffee a person drinks, the lower their risk is of developing Parkinson's disease. Studies show those who drink coffee on a daily basis may also be 60% to 80% less likely to develop Parkinson's.

Doctors at the Harvard School of Public Health discovered that men who drink four or more cups of caffeinated coffee per day have a lower risk of developing gallbladder stones. Over the course of a decade, the study followed more than 45,000 men who had not had gallbladder stone problems. The reason for this preventative effect is still unknown.

An antioxidant in coffee called methylpyridinium has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of colorectal and other cancers. The compound, which is formed during the roasting process of coffee beans, is found almost exclusively in coffee and is said to boost blood enzymes.

Drinking four cups of coffee per day may reduce the risk of liver cirrhosis by approximately 30%. Studies show that coffee not only has detoxifying properties that cleanse the liver, but the antioxidants found in coffee also work as free-radical scavengers to ward off disease and illness. A research team at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases analyzed data from a nutrition survey of 16,000 people. The results showed that those who drank caffeinated beverages exhibited lower incidences of liver injury--though it is unknown exactly how caffeine benefits liver function. Another study by researchers at the National Cancer Center in Tokyo found that coffee drinkers were half as likely as nondrinkers to develop liver cancer.

Many studies have confirmed that coffee has properties that prevent Type II diabetes. A study conducted at the Harvard University School of Public Health found that drinking coffee can cut the risk of developing Type II diabetes by 50% in men and by 30% in women. A Finnish study found that women who drank three to four cups of coffee per day reduced their risk of diabetes by 29%, while men who drank them same amount reduced their risk by 27%.

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