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What Are The Health Benefits Of Coffee?

By Bill Jamison


Coffee contains many complex chemicals that have both beneficial and detrimental effects on your body.

It was long thought that the regular consumption of coffee increased the risk of cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, but it is now widely believed that this correlation between coffee and disease may have been due to the fact that many of the participants in earlier studies also smoked.

Coffee, in many circles is now thought to be beneficial to your health.

Caffeine is the most active substance in coffee. The health effects of caffeine become statistically significant when you consume at least four cups of coffee each day. These effects include sleeplessness, anxiety and irritability, especially in individuals who are susceptible to caffeine. Any attempt to derive health benefits from coffee should therefore limit coffee consumption to three cups per day. It is also important to skip cream and sugar when drinking coffee.

One of the benefits of coffee which is well known is heightened alertness; an effect which can be helpful when performing many common tasks. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology revealed that students who had consumed caffeine were better able to spot grammatical errors in text, particularly subject-verb agreement and tense errors, although their ability to spot misspellings was not affected.

A Harvard University study also found a correlation between coffee consumption and a lower risk of depression in women. The study, published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, found that women who drank two to three cups of coffee per day had a 15% lower risk of developing depression, while those who drank four or more cups per day experienced a 20% lower risk of depression. The lower risk of depression in women who drink coffee regularly is thought to be due to caffeine's effects on regulating the release of neurotransmitters which affect mood.

One of the ingredients in coffee may also reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease in mice, according to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. The specific substance has not been identified, but the study did show that coffee increases the level of Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor, which is believed to fight Alzheimer's disease. The amount of coffee used in this study was the human equivalent of four to five cups.

The Harvard School of Public Health published a study in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute on the link between coffee consumption and the incidence of prostate cancer. The study showed that men who drank 6 or more cups of coffee daily had a 60% lower risk of developing the deadliest type of prostate cancer and a 20% lower risk of developing any type of prostate cancer.

Drinking coffee on a daily basis might also reduce the risk of basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common forms of cancer. A joint study by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that drinking 3 or more cups of coffee per day resulted in a 20% lower risk of basal cell carcinoma in women and a 9% lower risk in men. The study's findings were presented to the American Association for Cancer research.




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