COFFEE FOR BRAIN 9

Coffee and Liver Disease – drinking coffee provides protection for high-risk individuals. There's plenty of good news about coffee and liver disease. After so many years of being told that coffee is bad for us, it’s hard to keep up with the more recent studies that tell us the opposite. Whether it’s diabetes, colon cancer or the effects of smoking, all we hear now is good news about coffee. With regard to liver disease, consider these two news items: Coffee reduces risk of death from liver disease Drinking three cups of coffee daily may reduce the risk of mortality from liver cirrhosis, suggest researchers in Norway. The team from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo followed up 51,306 adults who underwent screening for cardiovascular disease from 1977 to 1983. During this time, 53 deaths were cirrhosis-related, and 36 of these deaths were attributed to alcoholic cirrhosis. The relative risk of liver cirrhosis, adjusted for sex, age, alcohol use and other major cardiovascular risk factors, seemed to be reduced by 40 per cent for those drinking three daily cups of coffee. For alcoholic cirrhosis the results were identical, reported the researchers in this month's Annals of Epidemiology. “The present study confirms the existence of an inverse association between coffee consumption and liver cirrhosis,” concluded the researchers, although they could not explain which component of coffee was producing the protective effect. The beneficial ingredient is unlikely to be caffeine however. Source: nutraingredients-usa.com, 2005 Coffee, Caffeine Consumption Associated With Reduced Liver Disease A U.S. population study of 5,944 adults conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) has found a strong association between coffee drinking and caffeine consumption and a lower risk of liver injury in persons at high risk for liver disease. The researchers defined the high-risk population as those who reported being heavy drinkers of alcohol, or who had hepatitis B or C, iron overload, were obese, or had impaired glucose metabolism. Liver injury was defined as a serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity level in excess of 43 U/L. The researchers reported that overall, the greater the coffee consumption, the greater the association with liver protection (P = .034 for the trend). The highest consumption noted was more than two cups of coffee per day. Consumers of more than two cups of coffee per day had an odds ratio (OR) for elevated ALT of 0.56 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.31 - 1.0); those who drank one to two cups had an OR of 0.83 (95% CI, 0.49 - 1.4). Those who drank less than one cup had an odds ratio of 1.4 (95% CI, 0.84 - 2.4), with zero cups being assigned an OR of 1.0. Source: Medscape Medical News, 2004 No miracle cure, but... Nobody is suggesting that coffee will cure you of liver disease, not now or in the future. But it’s reassuring to know that the brew we enjoy so much has some very healthy attributes. Coffee and liver disease is just one of the areas where caffeine appears to play an active and positive role. http://www.coffeedetective.com/liver-disease.html

Your risk of developing skin cancer is reduced by taking exercise and drinking coffee. Drinking coffee appears to lower the risk of developing skin cancer. A research team at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has shown that a combination of exercise and some caffeine protects against the destructive effects of the sun’s ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation, known to induce skin cancer. The caffeine and exercise seemingly work together in killing off pre-cancerous cells whose DNA has been damaged by UVB-rays. They used mice in their study, but it seems that the outcome would be the same for humans too. This study is significant because, according to the National Cancer Institute, sunlight-induced skin cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the United States with more than 1 million new cases each year. So if you like coffee and take a little exercise as well, it sounds like you’ll be protected. Once again, it seems that coffee is a health drink with some pretty amazing properties. http://www.coffeedetective.com/coffee-and-skin-cancer.html

Coffee and heart disease – coffee drinking actively reduces your risk of dying from heart disease. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine examined the relationship between coffee and mortality. It is based on the coffee drinking habits of 41,736 men and 86,216 women with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer. The men were followed for 18 years, the women for 24 years. The results show that those who drank more coffee had a lower risk of dying of cardiovascular disease [heart attacks]. 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. In addition, researchers from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center and Brooklyn College have discovered that drinking plenty of coffee protects the over-65s from heart disease. Decaf won’t help, as it’s the caffeine in coffee that has the protective effect. According to John Kassotis, MD, "The protection against death from heart disease in the elderly afforded by caffeine is likely due to caffeine's enhancement of blood pressure." Best of all, if you’re over 65 and a coffee lover, it seems the benefits are dose-related. That is to say, the more coffee you drink, the greater the protection provided. This does not, of course, mean you should be self-treating existing heart conditions with huge amounts of coffee each day. Coffee isn’t a treatment for anything, least of all heart disease. But it is reassuring to see that as each month goes by, more and more studies are revealing a broad range of health benefits associated with drinking coffee. Coffee is not only delicious, and the perfect way to wake up each morning, but it is also good for our health. http://www.coffeedetective.com/heart-disease.html

Carbohydrates in Coffee – there are none. And only 9 calories in each cup.   That’s right, there are no carbohydrates in coffee, and so few calories you could burn them off with a walk around the block. Of course, these figures are for a cup of fresh-brewed coffee, from beans, and without cream or sugar. The way you like to fix your coffee with cream and sugar will certainly have an impact on the final amount of carbohydrates and calories you ingest. But compared with most beverages around the house, coffee is very light on the bad stuff, and bursting with good stuff. Coffee is one of the nutritional “good guys”... * Coffee contains no cholesterol and no saturated fat * Coffee is low in sodium * Coffee beans contain no sugar * Coffee is high in magnesium, pantothenic acid, potassium and riboflavin...all of them good for you. Compare that with a few cans of soda, and you‘ll see that coffee gives you all the kick, without the drawbacks. Coffee is a natural stimulant too... We all know how caffeine gives us a kick when we drink coffee. But you may not know that caffeine is also the principle active ingredient in a lot of weight-loss supplements. Can coffee really help you lose weight? In spite of its widespread use, there is considerable debate about whether caffeine really does help you lose weight. So let’s split the difference, and relax in the knowledge that coffee won’t make you fat. As for carbohydrates in coffee, that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about at all. http://www.coffeedetective.com/carbohydrates-in-coffee.html