Daily Coffee Habit Brews Up Improved Health, Longer Life
Blog Name: MedHeadlines
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
For coffee aficionados, there's a lot to love about coffee. The aroma. The flavor. The morning ritual. The high-voltage jolt of energy that gets the day moving. Researchers in Spain have discovered that a generous dose of coffee every day just might reduce the risk of developing heart disease, too. Especially for women.
Researchers at Madrid's Autonoma University, led by Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia, used data from two massive, long-term lifestyle studies to track any adverse health reactions to a lifetime of drinking as much as 6 cups of coffee a day. The studies under evaluation, the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and the Nurses Health Study, involved more than 42,000 men and 84,000 women, respectively, who participated in the study from the 1970s to 2004. All study participants were free of all signs of cancer or heart disease at the beginning of the study.
When risk of death due to heart disease was compared in follow-up questionnaires completed from 1980 to 2004, female coffee drinkers were at 25% decreased risk of dying from heart disease than their non-coffee- drinking counterparts. Their risk of dying from diseases other than heart disease or cancer was 18% lower than the non-drinkers.
Men drinking the same amount of coffee each day did not realize the same health benefits the women did but coffee consumption did not adversely affect the mens' health or diminish their life expectancy, either.
Previous studies indicate regular coffee consumption is linked to a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In the Spanish study, there was no significant difference in the reduced risk of death due to heart disease between drinkers of naturally caffeinated coffee and those who drank decaf. This finding leads researchers to conclude the heart- healthy benefits of drinking coffee is more likely a matter of the beverage's high antioxidant content or other lifestyle factors of the study's participants than the coffee's caffeine content.
The June 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine carries the full details of this study.

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Lima Bean Blend~ A very special house blend of three beans from Central America, Africa and Indonesia that make a mild but flavorful cup of coffee.

Evening Blend~ This rich, full-bodied coffee is a mix of African and Indonesian beans.

Apricot Créme~ Sweet, juicy sun ripened apricots blended with sweet cream.

Columbian Supremo Decaf~ Rich, well- balanced, deep and mellow body.

Coffee Cake Decaf~ You can smell it baking in the oven! A hint of nuts, cinnamon, orange and spices.

• Over 53 countries grow coffee worldwide, but all of them lie along the equator between the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn.
• An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to approximately 2,000 pounds of beans after hulling.
• The percolator was invented in 1827 by a French man. It would boil coffee producing a bitter tasting brew. Today most people use the drip or filtered method to brew their coffee.
• With the exception of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, no coffee is grown in the United States or its territories.
• Until the 1870's most coffee was roasted at home in a frying pan over a charcoal fire. It wasn't until recent times that batch roasting became popular.
• Each year some 7 million tons of coffee beans are produced world wide. Most are hand picked.

Scientists have said that drinking coffee after exercising helps muscles replenish more quickly.
A report published in the Journal of Applied Physiology today claims that when athletes ingest both carbohydrates and caffeine following exhaustive exercise, glycogen is restored more rapidly.
In their tests, scientists found that athletes who ingested caffeine with carbohydrate had 66 per cent more glycogen in their muscles four hours after finishing exercising, compared to those who consumed carbohydrates alone.
"If you have 66 per cent more fuel for the next day's training or competition, there is absolutely no question you will go farther or faster," said Dr Hawley, author of report.
Dr Hawley added that it was currently unclear how caffeine aids in facilitating glucose uptake from the blood into the muscles, although, the higher circulating blood glucose and plasma insulin levels were likely to be a factor.
There are potentially negative effects of ingesting too much caffeine such as disturbing sleep and causing jitteriness, Dr Hawley admitted.
And therefore, scientists should look into studying whether ingesting less caffeine than those in their studies would achieve the same results, he added.