Like 651 Dislike 41
Uploaded on Mar 22, 2010
Over 400 billion cups of coffee are drunk globally each year, so it’s important to establish what impact coffee has on our health.
By Dr. Mercola
For years, coffee has suffered a bad rap, suspected of causing high blood pressure and contributing to heart disease, ulcers, and diabetes.
Most recently, Senator Durbin used caffeinated energy drinks as an example of the dangerous and ‘unregulated’ supplement industry, which he proposes should be regulated like the drug industry. But mounting research is casting doubt on the “common wisdom” that coffee is nothing but bad for you.
Certainly, coffee should not be used in excess. However, study after study has failed to prove that moderate coffee consumption increases your risk for cardiovascular disease or any other serious illness.
In fact, it’s beginning to look like coffee—at least in moderation—may have a number of unrecognized health-promoting properties.
Part of the confusion is that while caffeine in and of itself is a potent and addictive drug, coffee made from whole roasted coffee beans is also a whole food, containing a wide range of micronutrients in addition to caffeine.
As a result of evaluating the growing list of therapeutic benefits, I’ve changed my recommendations on coffee consumption, placing the emphasis on making sure it’s fresh, organic, and consumed black, should you decide to drink it.
Can Coffee Reduce Suicide Risk?
Most recently, a meta-analysis of three large studies on coffee consumption, published in the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry,1, 2 found that drinking two to four cups of caffeinated coffee daily was associated with a 50 percent reduced suicide risk among adults, compared to drinking one cup or less of caffeinated coffee, or decaf.
Drinking more than four cups a day did not lead to any further decrease in suicide risk. In all, the studies included more than 208,000 Americans, whose caffeine consumption was analyzed from a variety of sources, including coffee, tea, soda and chocolate. Coffee accounted for 71 percent of the total caffeine consumed. According to the authors:
“These results from three large cohorts support an association between caffeine consumption and lower risk of suicide.”