Heart Health: Current Research Gives the Thumbs Up to Coffee
It seems like coffee is one of those now it is bad-for-you / now it is good-for-you things. The good news for those who enjoy their hot cup of joe: The latest in-depth research shows that it can be good for your heart.
The new study, published in the journal Circulation, analyzed coffee use of over 208,000 people over 30 years. They also checked the records of their cause of death. Their coffee consumption was logged every four years using questionnaires.
Researchers did not test how coffee consumption would affect overall health outlooks, so they cannot conclude that coffee “causes” a decreased risk of death. Instead, they analyzed death trends in groups with varying amounts of coffee consumption.
They found that people who enjoyed one to five cups of decaf or regular coffee per day had a lower risk of mortality than those who didn’t. They were specifically less likely to die from heart disease, neurological diseases, Type 2 diabetes, and suicide.
Coffee consumption has been previously linked to a lower risk of heart disease. After an in-depth analysis of 36 studies on the subject, it was discovered that people who drink three to five cups of coffee a day are at the lowest risk of developing heart disease. Also, the suicide link is interesting. Can regularly drinking coffee really reduce a chance that someone will commit suicide?
Study co-author Qi Sun, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says yes. “It’s probably because of the caffeine,” he said. “It’s a central part of coffee and it’s known to boost people’s moods and make them feel happy.”
While the study found the effect was similar for regular and decaf coffee, decaf still contains a certain amount of caffeine. However, the benefits may be due to more than just caffeine: It could be that non-coffee drinkers are predisposed to depression/suicide because of other reasons and that increasing their coffee intake will not help.
Regular drinkers should still be aware of the amount of sugar. fat and calories added to their drinks, however.
Other Benefits
Moderate coffee drinking—between 1 and 5 cups daily— can also help reduce risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as Parkinson’s disease, studies suggest. Coffee’s antioxidants may prevent some damage to brain cells and boost the effects of neurotransmitters involved in cognitive function.
Vitamins in Coffee
We don’t think of coffee as a health beverage, but indeed there are some positive ingredients besides the caffeine. A single cup of coffee contains:
· Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): 11% of the Recommended Daily Allowance.
· Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5): 6% of the RDA.
· Manganese and Potassium: 3% of the RDA.
· Magnesium and Niacin (B3): 2% of the RDA.
Although this may not seem like a big deal, most people are drinking more than one cup per day. If you drink 3-4, then these amounts quickly add up.
So enjoy the “perks” of a good cup of coffee.
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