We’ve talked a bit in the past about some of the health benefits of drinking coffee, but we want to discuss the topic more in-depth, particularly regarding coffee’s benefits when it comes to lowering the risk of three today’s major debilitating health conditions: type 2 diabetes, dementia and heart disease.
So, let’s delve more deeply, shall we?
- Coffee may reduce the risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes.
At least two studies show that drinking coffee can protect the drinker from type 2 diabetes. In the first (from UCLA), researchers found that coffee increases the plasma levels of SHBG, a protein sex hormone-binding globulin – which controls testosterone and estrogen – sex hormones that play a role in the development of the insulin resistance. One of the authors of the study said there was an “inverse association” between drinking coffee and the risk for type 2 diabetes. A second study (from the Harvard School of Public Health), in which researchers looked at data gathered from three separate studies, found that individuals who ramped up their coffee intake by just an additional cup a day over a four-year time span saw an 11 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes over the following four years, compared to those people who didn’t change the amount of coffee they drank. - Women who drink coffee may have a lower risk of dementia.
The Journals of Gerontology recently reported that a tracking of about 6,500 women aged 65-80 over a decade found that those who self-reported that they drank 261 milligrams of caffeine a day (about three 8-ounce coffee cups) reduced their dementia risk by 36 percent.
What’s more, a 2010 report in PubMed.gov cited the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study, which looked at data from several other analyses and found that three out of five them “support” the favorable effects of coffee against brain decline. The CAIDE study found that drinking three to five cups of coffee a day at midlife “was associated” with a reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in later life by 65 percent. - Coffee is proving more and more that it’s good for one’s heart.
Time was, many physicians urged caution when it came to the stimulating effects of coffee on one’s heart, recommending that those who had had a heart attack or showed signs of heart disease forgo their morning cup of joe.But that advice appears to be waning, as more evidence is building regarding the hearth-helping aspects of coffee drinking.For example, a 2013 analysis of 36 studies covering more than one million people, found that those who drank coffee in moderation (no more than four to five cups of coffee a day) were significantly less liable to develop cardiovascular disease than non-coffee drinkers.
In addition, a 2012 study of five clinical research reports of about 140,000 people, discovered that individuals who drank four cups of coffee a day were the least likely to develop heart failure.
If you don’t drink coffee now, after reading of its benefits, what – oh, what?! – is stopping you? If you do decide to drink the dark elixir, or if you’re looking to drink a delicious organic, fair trade brand, check out Ubean Coffee today.