Search
×

Sign up

Use your Facebook account for quick registration

Sign up with Facebook

OR

Create a Shvoong account from scratch

Create your account
Already a Member? Sign In!
×

Sign In

Sign in using your Facebook account

Sign in with Facebook

OR

Not a Member? Sign up!
×

Sign up

Use your Facebook account for quick registration

Sign up with Facebook

OR

Sign In

Sign in using your Facebook account

Sign in with Facebook
Shvoong Home>Internet & Technology>Coffee - Healthy Body and Mind? Review

Coffee - Healthy Body and Mind?

Website Review   by:neha_sg    
  • Summary rating: 3 stars (2 Ratings)
  • Visits : 50
  • words:600 
ª
 
The idea that coffee is bad for heart pops up periodically. It was found that regularly drinking very strong coffee could sharply increase cholesterol levels. Researchers even isolated fat like chemicals, cafestol and kahweol responsible for the rise.
Research has also shown that regular, moderate coffee drinking does not dangerously raise blood pressure. And studies have failed to substantiate fears that coffee might trigger abnormal heart rhythms in healthy people. “Coffee drinking at reasonable levels is unrelated to heart risk” says Meir Stampfer, an epidemiologist at Harvard who has studied many aspects of coffee and health.
Evidence suggests that coffee may help fend off Parkinson’s disease. A 30-year old study of 8000 Japanese-American men found that avid coffee drinkers had one-fifth the risk of those who didn’t drink the brew.
Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, found indirect evidence that Caffeine the habit-forming stimulant in coffee – may actually combat Parkinson’s. The caffeine seemed to protect mice brain cells from depletion of the nerve chemical dopamine – the problem underlying Parkinson’s in humans. However these are preliminary findings; human studies have not consistently supported caffeine’s protective role. The studies on coffee and cancer have focused on three organs – and are reassuring. You may remember a brief coffee scare in the early 1980’s when a single study linked coffee with pancreatic cancer. A false alarm: Many studies since then have shown that the association is either extremely weak or non-existent.
If there is a connection between coffee and bladder cancer, it possibly applies just to coffee junkies. A reanalysis of ten European studies found an increased risk in only among people who drank ten or more cups a day. And studies show that coffee seems to have no adverse affect influence on the risk of colon cancer.
Caffeine is such a powerful stimulant that the International Olympic Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association set limits on how much can remain in the blood during competition. In addition to boosting physical endurance, caffeine increases alertness and improves mood. The buzz may come at a price, though. People who drink more than they’re used to may become restless and unable to sleep. Moreover it’s possible to become physically dependent these days. The question now arises: how much to drink? Those with heartburn and anxiety may want to see if cutting back coffee improves their condition. For most people, however there’s virtually no risk in consuming up to three normal cups a day.
Published: February 20, 2008   
Please Rate this Review : 1 2 3 4 5
Write your own     Comment
View All  
Translate Send Link Print
X

.