Surprising Health benefits of Coffee
A cup of coffee a day keeps the doctor away? For those of you who can’t
part with your morning cup of joe, take heart: Turns out a daily dose of
java comes with a number of surprising health perks. Once considered a
toxic vice, coffee is now being touted as one of the healthiest
beverages on the planet, when consumed in moderation. In honor of
National Coffee Day, here are eight health benefits of coffee that will
vindicate your morning excursion to Starbucks.
1. Coffee makes you smarter. Feeling sluggish? Didn’t
get enough shut-eye? When energy lags, coffee can deliver an instant
boost, temporarily increasing cognition, vigilance, reaction time and
logical reasoning.
2. Coffee may slash cancer risk. Current
scientific evidence suggests that moderate coffee consumption comes
with several cancer-fighting benefits, thanks in part to its high level
of antioxidant. In men, coffee can help slow the progression and
recurrence of prostate cancer. In women, three or more cups a day has
been linked with a lower risk of developing basal cell carcinoma
(BCC)—the most common type of skin cancer—by as much as 20 percent.
3. Coffee may ward off depression. Here’s
another reason to drink up: Studies have found that coffee may confer
protection against depression. Caffeine may bust bad moods by
stimulating the production of “feel-good” neurotransmitters in the
brain, including dopamine, serotonin and noradrenalin. Additionally, a
recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health reported that coffee consumption appears to lower the risk of suicide in men and women by as much as 50 percent.
4. Coffee enhances athletic performance. Gearing
up for a 5K, spin class or tennis match? Two cups of coffee (or the
equivalent of about 250 mg of caffeine)might be the magic elixir you
need to run faster, pedal longer or hit the ball harder. A natural
stimulant, coffee increases physical endurance by increasing the number
of fatty acids circulating in the bloodstream.
5. Coffee may protect your liver. More
good news for coffee drinkers: That daily pick-me-up could offer a
powerful defense for the liver. In studies, increased caffeine intake
was linked with slowing the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease. Paraxanthine—one of the breakdown products of caffeine—is
thought to restrict the growth of the type of tissue seen in liver
fibrosis, alcoholic cirrhosis and liver cancer.
6. Coffee may lower diabetes risk.
Java junkies may have a lower chance of developing Type 2 diabetes. A
study of 14,000 people in Finland found that women who drank the most
coffee curbed their risk of diabetes by as much as 29 percent (for men,
that number was 27 percent). Researchers suspect that the antioxidants
in coffee may play a role in improving insulin sensitivity.
7. Coffee can aid with migraine relief. Although
caffeine can trigger migraines in some people, sipping coffee may
provide instant pain relief when migraines strike. Coffee constricts
swollen blood vessels in the brain, which can decrease throbbing pain.
In fact, caffeine is so effective as a migraine-fighter that it is used
as a main ingredient in many popular over-the-counter migraine
medications.
8. Coffee can protect your brain. Coffee
may help keep your brain sharp as you age, thwarting the onset of
Alzheimer’s or dementia. A 2012 study conducted by the University of
South Florida and the University of Miami
examined the effect of caffeine on cognition and found that coffee
drinkers had lower risk of developing either of the diseases.
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