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1st Cup Of Coffee: Hardening Your Arteries
mikewhittaker writes "A recent article on The Times refer to a report which indicates that the intake of caffeine from a single coffee can have adverse effects on your arteries and heart." Actually, it goes so far to say that the first cup of coffee is the worst. Of course, basically, anything you do is bad for at some level, so I guess it's choosing your poisons.
So skip the first cup of coffee and go right to the second.
They did it again ! Sometimes the study says "cofee bad", the next day another one claims "coffe good". With so many divergent results, how can one still trust any of those studies ?
-- javaDragon is an instance of JavaDragon.
a single coffee can have adverse effects on your arteries and heart.
Whew. That was close. Glad I switched to espresso!
Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
I'm not a coffee drinker - it's too bitter (even mocha tastes weird) and I haven't gotten used to it yet.
I like chocolate. Chocolate's great. The sugar'll probably be Very Bad for me later, though. No win.
What about tea?
It's easy to test out the health effects of caffeine - just give it up for a month.
Every 6 months or so, I quit caffeine cold turkey - no soda, no coffee, etc. The first 3-4 days are miserable - headaches, fatigue, etc. After that I start feeling much better, sleeping better, having more energy, etc. It's pretty clear that I feel better and healthier without that morning copy of coffee.
Of course, then some deadline pops up and I'm back to drinking 2 cups of coffee and a six pack of diet coke per day. What drives me nuts is that I know better - I've been through this cycle at least 5 times. Thanks God I never started smoking! If I have this much trouble giving up caffeine, I can't imagine what nicotine would do to me.
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
It is rather a shame that society (North American society) is so obsessed now with risk aversion!
Everything we do has good and bad affects. Coffee makes you feel good but shortens life. Good choice for each to make. Wine lessens cardiovascular degeneration but increases the chance of liver ailments. Flying gets you tere quickly but you can fall. Peanuts are wholesome food but can kill one in a million. In the USA, only the negative part of each of these equations is being seen. Playgrounds have no swigs here anymore becuase they too can be dangerous.
Well, I for one will not worry. I make my own choices. I take calculated risks. I am aware that it all ends in tears anyway: no-one lives over 110 years and anyway, by 80, half of us have Alzheimers. Best enjoy the three score years and ten I'd say.
Would talk more but must be off for a coffee.
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BDOS ERR ON A:>
If you actually read this article, the study only confirms that for a few hours after consuming a cup of coffee, your heart is placed under more stress. In and of itself, this does not appear to be very significant. Any vigorous physical activity will also raise your heartrate, constrict your arteries, and put your heart under more stress. It says NOTHING about long-term health consequences, which is really the main issue here.
I recall reading several years ago that at that time, the long-term health consequences of coffee were unclear. Some adverse affects were sometimes suggested in studies, but it turns out there are tremendous confounding factors -- coffee drinkers often tend to eat lots of donuts, be less active, and so on. When the initial population of patient participants was selected as healthy health care professionals, little or no adverse affects were observed for moderate (up to a couple of cups a day) intakes of coffee.
Bob
Science, like Nature, must also be tamed, with a view turned towards its preservation.
Eh, of course playgrounds never had "swigs" in the first place. Swings, yes.
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BDOS ERR ON A:>
Don't know if you American folks have them, but there is a coffee restaurant called "the Second Cup" up here. Guess we know how they got their name now; attractive mottos like "Go anywhere else and you will die a slow and painful death" become effective if this news is publicized!
I am suprised that there isnt more attention being paid to the excess consumption of water. A sudden change in elctrolites could cause a person's cells to burst. Why arent there any warning labels on bottle water?
Imagine if you will:
Reefer: "Yeah, dude, I got this nasty shit from Columbia!"
Stoner: "Yo dude, gimme some of that..."
Reefer: "Ya gotta swollow 2 oz of those coffee grounds with hot water, dude!"
Stoner: "Cooooollllll... my parents will never figure it out! Sweet! I'll pay ya $2000 for it!"
Karma whorin' since 1999
What a crazy article! Since the article doesn't cite a source, one can conclude that the research hasn't been published yet.
And since the research hasn't been published, one can assume that the study has not been peer reviewed - or even hasn't been accepted as worthy science.
So therefore, no one knows if this study is the next greatest find, or just a piece of crap designed to grab headlines.
I suspect the later.
Cheers,
vic
Unless you're talking herbals, tea is equally, and in some cases, even more, potent as coffee.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
No more coffee means no more reading Slashdot first thing in the morning.
This, of course, would improve workplace productivity in the key IT depts around the nation.
Therefore, a ban on coffee will lead to increased productivity and a rise in economic output, thereby solving the nations economic woes.
Therefore, drinking coffee is the cause of the current economic downturn.
But none of you have read this because you all just gave up coffee.
Nothing wrong with this logic.
There was another article today on Reuters Health pointing out that coffee was chock full of antioxidants.
So it's all a wash.
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
let me point out that this article claims the study advises at the end says that one should switch to decaffeinated coffee- so is it the caffeine in the coffee that's causing the artery hardening, etc?
to establish that it's the caffeine, then a control study should have been done with decaffeinated coffee. even better, another study should be conducted in which the effects of no-doz or other purified caffeine pills are measured relative to placebo pills.
and if it is *just* the caffeine, then clearly the advisory should be applied toward all caffeinated drinks. just such jolt, or cola, or tea.
in short, i think that either the reporting of this science or the science itself is a bit sloppy. this must have been funded by some anti-coffee foundation.
Alright - I'll admit that I'm hopelessly addicted to caffeine. I take it in all forms, normal coffee (three heaped spoonfuls), espresso (the same), tea (brewed for at least 3 minutes) and last but not least Irn-Bru.
I don't think Irn-Bru is available in America, but in Scotland, it's our unofficial national beverage. Plus, it's also got more caffeine in it than any other fizzy drink. I drink this stuff by the bottle load, normally accompanied by my friends when we're watching a DVD, playing Quake, or just cos I'm desperate for another glass.
It's freakin' typical that my favourite drinks all turn out to be lethal.
Sure, for alot of people thats really Bad. But if you're very active and healthy, it's not.
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have the sheißplatz for inspecting ones feces? Now I would call that going too far for health...
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* Turkish Proverb: "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death,
and sweet as love."
* Sheikh Abd-al-Kadir (1587): "No one can understand the truth until
he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness."
* Sir James MacKintosh (18th century philosopher): "The powers of a
man's mind are directly proportional to the quantity of coffee he
drank."
* Johann Sebastian Bach (1732, an aria from his 'Kaffee-Kantate'):
"Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovlier than a thousand kisses,
sweeter than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee..."
* David Letterman (Esquire Interview Fall '94): "If it wasn't for
coffee, I'd have no discernible personality at all."
* Chris Egolf (1993): "This damn pot is too fucking slow!"
* Wise New York City Homeless Man (1996, to Chris Egolf): "Son, you
need to get some coffee in you so people know you're alive!"
At the intersection of computation and biology.
Drink up! Yippeee...! Er...
Scene closes with programmer's workmates, each with coffee in hand, shaking their heads sadly as paramedics bear away a sheet-covered object on a stretcher.
My point: less harmful is not the same as harmless.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I think they should ban coffee, with the same force of prohibition that they ban marijuana.
It makes exactly as much sense.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
But, there has been some studies that show that coffee drinkers are less likely to get bladder cancer. Probably because there is nothing in the bladder long enough to cause cancer. Beer may work that way too, but you don't have the side affect of wanting to climb a transmission tower and piss on high voltage wires.
Fight Spammers!
three times before I figured out that it didn't mean "a coffee can", because I was trying to figure out how to drink from multiple cans instead.
...in another 6 months they'll release a study claiming that coffee could help prevent cancer. It'll all balance out. Yeah, I know this is a bit jaded, but what do you expect after years of studies claiming that such-n-such harms you, followd by another round of studies claimng that such-n-such is good for you?
As a general rule, you need at least a lifetime to really figure it out. Some of this stuff *should* be obvious. Did we really need the surgeon general to tell us that chronic smoke inhalation isn't good for us? For centuries people have witnessed others who drank themselves to death, so we pretty much knew excessive alcohol consumption wasn't good either.
In modern times, the 1st world has developed the ability to feed itself so that gluttony is now affordable. But that's one of the 7 deadly sins, so once again it should have occured to us that eating 6 big macs for breakfast and never exercising wasn't such a good idea.
Most everything else is so subtle that you just shouldn't worry about it.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Well, this study reports that coffee is a rich source of antioxidants.
Sept 5, 2001: LONDON (Reuters) - Coffee beats green tea by containing four times the amount of health-boosting antioxidants, which can assist in preventing or postponing the onset of degenerative diseases, according to a new study.
...
Antioxidants reduce the effects on the human body of harmful substances known as free radicals which may be a major contributor to cardiovascular disease, cancer, cataracts and decline of the immune and nervous system.
My mother is hugely addicted to tea. Growing up, I remember how she had to have her morning cup and a cup of tea just to wake up from a nap. I decided then that I would never let myself get dependent on the stuff.
I do drink coffee or have a coke sometimes when I'm in "crunch mode". This could be a big exam when I was in college, a major deadline at work or some serious night-time driving. One thing that not consuming any caffeine has done to me is made my hypersensitive to the stuff. So if I have a single coke any time after noon, I can't sleep well at night - regardless of how tired I am.
I had a point when I began this post but missed it somewhere.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Of course, basically, anything you do is bad for at some level, so I guess it's choosing
:)
your poisons.
Well.... maybe a cost-benefit analysis is a better way of looking at it. Is coffee REALLY that important to you? Great, take it and take the health impacts. For most people, though, it just might be worth it to quit.
And there are lots of enjoyable things that don't do you much harm. Find one, make that your habit. I'm currently enjoying being hydrated.
Of course, I still consume enough cheese that if I didn't exercise, I would become the Kraft Blimp
Tweet, tweet.
'The findings showed that the first cup had the most significant effect because caffeine levels in the blood had dropped during the night.'
There's a no-brainer. Drink a maintenance dose when you get up to pee in the middle of the night.
Ok... here's the deal with coffee. Being a programmer, I drink a lot of coffee. I'm not bringing this topic up because I'm strange... this is serious. Usually after my first major caffeine hit in the morning, I get the "coffee shits". Strange thing about the coffee shits is that it only happens once! Once the event has occurred, I'm safe to drink as much coffee as I want without further problems. Its almost as if the colon has crossed some kind of hidden barrier into a state of caffeine dependence.
Ever wonder why drinking cofee usually results in a major colon explosion?
I've consulted a number of medical information sources trying to find the exact biological cause of "the coffee shits"... mostly because I'd like to know what kind of pressures are put on my body from caffeine intake.
Never once did I ever think that perhaps my arteries were at stake too! In fact, I always thought coffee was good for my body in a way... being all natural and everything.
Aside from the arteries problem, anybody have any biological insight into the coffee shits?
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
I've seen quite a few programmers, and I'm thinking
;)
a good percentage will be adversely affected by
coffee LONG before they reproduce (and no, this
has nothing to do with the quantity of coffee they drink)
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
...the worst thing to be addicted to is boasting about your addictions, or boasting about your lack thereof.
"If today you hear His voice, harden not your heart"
Or something like that...
Posted from the wireless couch.
Since I have no idea where the study was published, I can't comment on the methodology, etc. However, I do have to wonder how this research can be groundbreaking.
People with preexisting heart problems who are at risk for arrhythmias or recurrent myocardial infarctions are already warned not to take caffeine. Any stimulant will increase heart rate and blood pressure. Most people with problems know this an ignore this just as those with lung/heart problems ignore our advice to stop smoking.
An interesting side note, those people who suffer from migraine headaches often experience them most severely on the weekends, when they no longer take caffeine, which can work wonders...
Invicta{HOG}
The Surgeon General simply needs to put a warning label on every can, bag, bottle or carton of products that contain caffeine. That's what they did for tobacco products, and it solved the whole thing, didn't it?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I guess it would make sense then that the US Government should sue Coffee farmers now too. After all, cigarettes are bad for you and we can sue "Big Tobacco" right? Maybe we should be suing Big Coffee now too. I can see it now. Starbucks sued because they sell coffee to young adults and intentionally increase the addictive caffeine per cup (Espresso).
I personally gave up coffee months ago. I knew there we health side effects. It's been known for years. I gave up smoking over a year ago for similar reasons. It really is a matter of chosing your poisons. People don't need to be protected from themselves. I just hate when Big Government (Socialist Liberals) tries to profit from the personal choices of some idiots in the populus.
Just trying to get people thinking about this so we don't have another Tobacco lawsuit on our hands.
I am MuchTall
I drink a lot of Dew, The Juice of the Gods. I suppose that's a bad thing too.
I'm not going to deny that coffee is addictive. But, you should take into account that you are probably severly dehydrated when you are drinking 2 cups of coffee and a 6-pack of coke a day. Most Americans are chronically dehydrated. If you just cut out most of the coffee and cokes, and drank a lot of water, you would feel a lot better. And still have your morning cup of joe! That's what I do.
It looks like Microsoft will go to any length to get rid of Java!
Kind thoughts do not change the world
This is no big deal, unless you have high blood pressure, because the effect is very temporary. The article said "one cup hardened the blood vessels for at least two hours". It's not like you are going to need bypass surgery or something.
If you have average blood pressure, or (as I do) slightly low blood pressure, then have some coffee to celebrate the news!
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I had a similar issue. With me, times of great stress (ie the job, or the lack of the job...) will make my heart act up. You know that weird feeling when your heart flutters? Imagine that happening for a couple of seconds like 10-20 times a day. That's how I handle stress, and caffeine makes it much, much worse.
You can be highly psychologically addicted, but as far as physical addictions go, caffine is a really easy one to break. Oh, and as for smoking, my advice is to smoke a pipe. I've never seen a cigarette smoker derive as much enjoyment from a cigarette as I get from my pipe, and the time it takes means that I generally smoke about once every 2-4 weeks, never allowing myself to become addicted. Also, by puffing instead of inhaling, my lung cancer risk is also cut to near zero. It's a wonderful way to relax, if done correctly.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Ummm, ok. So never mind all those doctor recommendations to exercise and eat vegetables and fruits. Those are bad for you too. Hahahahaha! Existance is futile!
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
Im not smug. Not in the least. How did you get that?
I understand its not a contest. I dont wear a badge either, infact you wouldnt even think i was vegan if you were to see me.
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
Wierd! Me too! I theorize that the rise in blood pressure combined with the sugar and cream I liberally add (coffee is bitter!) inadvertently send the signal to my colon that it's time to excrete by suggesting to my brain that I've just had an adrenaline rush: time to dump 'n' run!. Sugar level in blood and blood pressure rise suddenly: what else is it supposed to think?
Well, that's what I get for having a highly interconnected neural network as my CPU 8^P.
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.