Vox Populi
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Dr. Michael Greger: Health Benefits of Coffee
The Beverage Guidance Panel, assembled to provide recommendations on benefits and risks of various beverage categories, found tea and coffee—preferably without creamer or sweetener—tied as the number-two healthiest beverages, second only to water.
Indeed, studies have shown many potential benefits to coffee consumption. For those infected with hepatitis C, for example, drinking coffee may reduce DNA damage, increase the clearance of virus-infected cells, and slow the scarring process, which may help explain coffee’s apparent role in reducing liver disease progression risk.
What about coffee and Parkinson’s? Consumption seems to be associated with about one-third lower risk. The key ingredient appears to be the caffeine, since tea also seems protective and decaf coffee does not. And for treating Parkinson’s? Giving Parkinson’s patients the caffeine equivalent of two cups of coffee a day significantly improved movement symptoms within three weeks.
The National Institutes of Health–AARP Diet and Health Study, the largest-ever prospective study conducted on diet and health, found that people who drank six or more cups of coffee per day had a 10 to 15 percent lower mortality rate due to fewer deaths from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries, accidents, diabetes, and infections. However, when a study looked at people 55 and younger, the opposite effect was found: Drinking more than six cups of coffee daily was found to increase the risk of death. The bottom line, based on all the best studies to date, 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.
We used to think caffeine might increase the risk of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, but studies dispelled that myth. Moreover, “low-dose” caffeine, defined as drinking fewer than about six cups of coffee a day, may even have a protective effect on heart rhythm.
Harvard University researchers found that people who drank two or more cups of coffee daily appeared to have about only half the suicide risk compared to non-coffee drinkers, and a Kaiser Permanente study found that people who drank more than six cups a day were 80 percent less likely to commit suicide, though drinking eight or more cups daily has been associated with increased suicide risk.
Coffee is not for everyone, though. People with glaucoma, epilepsy, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) may want to stay away from caffeinated coffee.
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Text and video from NutritionFacts.org. Included in Vox Populi under an open license.
Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
NutritionFacts.com Founder, President, Research Director
A founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Michael Greger, M.D., is a physician and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition. His science-based nonprofit, NutritionFacts.org, offers a free online portal hosting more than 2,000 videos and articles on myriad health topics. Dr. Greger is a sought-after lecturer and has presented at the Conference on World Affairs and the World Bank, testified before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in Oprah Winfrey’s defense in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. A graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Greger is also an acclaimed author. How Not to Die, The How Not to Die Cookbook, How Not to Diet, and How Not to Age became instant New York Times Best Sellers. More than a million copies of How Not to Die have been sold. All proceeds Dr. Greger receives from the sales of his books and speaking honoraria are donated directly to charity.
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Since I had COVID (twice) I can’t stand the taste or the smell of coffee. I hope English black tea does the trick as well.
–Rosmarie Epaminondas (Rose Mary Boehm)
http://rosemaryboehm.weebly.com/https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/ https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/* https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9fygcz_kL4LGuYcvmC8lQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9fygcz_kL4LGuYcvmC8lQ
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Dr Greger establishes in a separate article that the various teas, black as well as herbal, are very healthy beverages, much more so than canned or refrigerated juices which lose their nutrients in storage.
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Recently it was suggested by some well-meaning friends that I might benefit from Methylphenidate… (Ritalin is one brand) to help with my ADD. Since I do not want to take more pills I thought a bit more caffeine in y life might not be too bad…I have always enjoyed a cuppa caffeine once in a while so I decided to gradually up my enjoyment to every morning and eventually gift myself with a bit more in the early afternoon. I loved the videos! Very informative.
My ADD? Not gone but have, for the most part, developed a working relationship with it… 🙂
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All the best on your caffeine journey. Many of us will join you in spirit. Also in your scheduling of the fun.
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Good for you, Katherine. I strongly distrust the philosophy that there is a pharmaceutical solution to every problem in life. We fought against a teacher and administrator who wanted to put our son on Ritalin in elementary school because he wasn’t learning to read fast enough in their opinion. Finally, we put him in a Waldorf School where the philosophy is to let the kids play, sing, make art and learn to read at their own pace. Over time he did just fine and now is married and owns a home renovation company. Pharmaceuticals have their place, but they shouldn’t be the first place we turn when things are not the way we want them.
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Oh I love my coffee! Preferably on the deck, birds at the feeders, dog warm against my leg.
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Lovely. Me too.
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Yes! Each morning before I open the doors and curtains, look to see if our Harris/Walz sign was destroyed, let the cat out, turn on the news to see if Trump has declared Florida an independent country and requested annexation by Russia, check my email for Vox Populi, I start my coffee. We must have our priorities.
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Thanks for a morning giggle!
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Hahahahaha. Perfect.
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Here’s my second cup of black tea (6 AM) to that article!
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Perfect. Elsewhere, Greger talks about the health benefits of tea, as well as herbal tea.
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And the thought of that first cup propels me out of bed in the morning. Now even more reason to rise and shine.
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Indeed.
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Thanks! now no guilt as I start that second pot of espresso.
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My family drank a lot of coffee when I was growing up. It was an important coming of age ritual when I had my first cup at age 12. We always thought it was a vice like smoking, but as it turns out we were wrong.
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