There are many published articles about the effects of drinking coffee on an individuals health.
Most of the articles note that there are health traits in individuals who do drink coffee compared with those who do not, but the researchers pretty much unanimously caution that the reported effects are based upon statistical data in comparing incidence of disease between coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers and there is no actual proof that coffee in fact produces the beneficial effects.
An example of this is that persons who are likely to drink coffee might have a higher rate of engaging in other activities that affect their health, such as smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, etc.
Nevertheless, some of the studies have followed large numbers of individuals for many years and that leads the researchers to believe the effects of coffee are sufficiently well documented to be worthy of belief.
There are several benefits and some bad effects of drinking coffee that are pretty much agreed upon by the various individuals and organizations that have conducted research into the effects of coffee on the human body.
There is pretty general agreement that drinking a cup of joe, also known as coffee, reduces the risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Since Type 2 Diabetes increases a persons risk of heart attack or stroke, the drinking of coffee indirectly also reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke. There is a caution here however. In some individuals, excessive consumption of coffee can cause increased heart beat; increased blood pressure or irregular heartbeat. I personally experienced this many years ago in the form of heart palpitations, which stopped after I reduced my daily consumption of coffee.
Especially among women, drinking two or more cups of coffee a day is believed to reduce the risk of depression.
Coffee appears to reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men. There are basically two forms of prostate cancer; with one being more aggressive than the other. Coffee seems to especially reduce the chance of having the more aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Coffee is known to contain antioxidants, but the actual effect of these antioxidants within the human body is not provable. This is why the researchers generally caution that while the apparent effects of drinking coffee are well documented, they generally are not provable in the normal context of medical testing.
Coffee is also known to contain minerals such as magnesium and chromium which are believed to be principal factors in reducing the risk of Type 2 Diabetes by helping the body control the production of insulin by the individual drinking the coffee.
There is limited data suggesting that drinking coffee might also reduce the risk of liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver.
Those who drink coffee also are believed to reduce their risk of all forms of dementia, including alzheimers disease.
Very few things are perfect and this is of course true with drinking coffee. As noted above, it can cause some irregular heart rythym in some individuals. Both regular and decaf coffee contain acids which can worsen heartburn. There is also some evidence that high consumption of unfiltered coffee might cause elevated cholesterol levels.
All in all, the beneficial effects of drinking a single cup of Joe, or several of them, appear to greatly outweigh the negative effects. Added to the personal feeling of satisfaction that comes with drinking a cup of coffee, I intend to continue to have my morning cup of coffee each day.
Those of you reading this article who would like more statistical data concerning the good and bad effects of drinking coffee might want to check out the wikepedia and webmd sites, among others.
Charles
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