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Coffee Maybe Not a Health Drink!
perbert writes "Canadian researchers have published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that excess coffee drinking (4+ cups a day) could lead to an increased risk of heart disease if you have the wrong gene. In light of other studies linking antioxidants in coffee to a reduction in heart disease, who is right? Or will they cancel out in a coffee death-match?"
As with anything related to toxicology, the dose is the poison.
I think I should wait until the quad venti skim latte kicks in before contemplating the coffee deathmatch.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
"the difference between medication and poison is the dose"
So say we all
Does anyone really drink coffee because supposed health benefits?
...
I thought it was just the magic breakfast juice that helps me move, think,
More and more often I keep hearing about things like this.
"Doctors say more than 4 cups is bad for you!"
then, 2 months later... "Doctors say more than 4 cups is good for you!"
One month you hear too much fiber is bad for you, then cholesterol is good for you.
I think as long as everyone comsumes food/drinks moderately and not go over board most people have nothing to worry about. Although, with obesity in the United States the way it is today, I would say it's already too late.
Those who trade in their freedom for security, deserve neither.
I've started injecting it, so I'm not sure how this applies to me.
... namely one Commander Samuel Vimes: "Coffee is merely a way of stealing time that by rights should belong to your slightly older self".
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
It shouldn't be too surprising that too much of anything is bad for you. Most food stuffs have complicated chemicals in, and thus too much of any of them can give your body a hard time due to damaging reactions, or difficulty in disposal.
;)
However having said this, I until recently was having something like 6 cups of coffee a day. A few months ago my body started reacting really badly to even the smell of coffee, drinking a cup gives me a terrible reaction with shivering, accelerated heart rate and light-headedness for up to a few hours.
The stuff is nasty.
Currently I'm drinking 6 cups of tea a day instead
Health hazard or health drink? What to do? The answer is simple. Find studies that support your pre-determined point of view and use those to guide the decision. I like coffee very much. Caffeine addiction is not a problem so long as I can find at least one study that proves how healthy my coffee habit is.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, "TCO analysis for the enterprise"
I was basically forced to quit drinking caffeine in Decemeber. This was not something I ever expected to be able to do. The migraine lasted for about a week straight but I have been basically fine since.
Since I was 22 I have had high blood pressure. I've spoken here about it before and complained about the high cost of Rx meds to control it and my belief that my Doctor (undercompensated by my insurance provider) is possibly pushing name-brand drugs instead of their generic counterparts to recoup some of that cost in kick-backs.
Anyway, I was gaining on 200mg daily of various meds to control the BP. I was also gaining in daily consumption of caffeine. After switching to Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper (aka Liquid Crack) I was heading for 5 to 6 20oz bottles a day (at work) plus 5 to 10 12oz cans every two days (at home).
After quitting the caffeine habbit I'm on 10mg of BP meds (about $10 a month) and water.
So, if you're looking to limit your heart disease and the high cost of protecting yourself against it with prescriptions, you might want to first take a look at your caffeine intake. It worked for me.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
for the future of Java? For now, I'm drinking green tea and coding in C#.
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
What happens is that conflicting summaries get posted around the Internet and everyone thinks scientists are just having them on.
If you look carefully the summary for the research is saying the caffeine is bad for you, and that the study concluded this based on research into coffee consumption. The other studies that claim coffee is good for you were actually referring to other chemicals in coffee, not the caffeine, nor the entirety of the coffee.
Also people seem to think that scientists study everything about a topic before releasing results. But that is a misunderstanding about how science works. Generally scientists focus on very small areas of large topics and then propose more sweeping conclusions. Usually the media then make even more generalised conclusions that result in complete misunderstanding in non-scientists.
Peer review is also important, often these studies are fundamentally flawed and even though the submitted paper offers a conclusion, the scientist writing it is well aware that in science, nothing is proved by one paper. Instead wait ten years for more supporting evidence, rinse, repeat and progress.
Anything to excess is likely to be harmful. The key is to find balance — moderation in all things, including moderation!
All about me
I am proposing that eating a Whoopie Pie a day is part of a healthy diet. Prove me wrong and give me a pie!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
In a 24 hour period. If you are not hallucinating by 11AM, it's time for another cup of coffee.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
"Studies have shown that research causes cancer in lab rats."
I think the problem with stories like this is that broad generalizations on health are made using one narrow area of research. In this case it is discovered that 4+ cups a day may cause heart disease.
Wait! Only if you have a certain gene that expresses itself. Or maybe it's because the gene causes a stressful life and it has nothing to do with coffee.
Perhaps in 20 years 1 cup a day will cause colon cancer. Maybe it will help you live 20 years longer. We are far too willing to jump to holistic health decisions based on a single narrow study.
I would hope that no one would make drastic life decisions (not that drinking/not drinking coffee should be that drastic) based on a single study.
Cut back on fast food, drink more water, eat more fruits and vegetables. My mom was trying to tell me that 20 years ago. You feel better and your body can better handle the impurities that you put in it. Then you don't have to focus so much on the small stuff.
You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means
So here's a small problem with your signature - you run the while loop until the beer is full...but you chug the beer inside the while loop. Which means that once your beer is full...you stop drinking. Of course, this is all dependent upon the fact that chug doesn't empty the glass, which is usually what happens when you chug...so basically I think you need to check the return of chug to make sure it didn't fail. Otherwise you might have problems.
Sorry for wasting your time.
I can only laugh as I sip on my Large Double-Double[1] Coffee from Tim Hortons. Coffee can kill me, my Work may kill me, walking across the street is dangerous. On the plus side, the coffee helps me cope at work and keeps me alert as I walk across the street: reducing 2 out of 3 risks isn't too bad.
[1] For those not in the know: double-double -- a coffee with double cream, double sugar (especially, but not exclusively, from Tim Hortons). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_slang
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
I see your joke but it really is pathetic how one study tells you this and another tells you something contrary. I remember when eggs were good for you and then they weren't and now they are good again. Apples were good for you ("An apple a day keeps the doctor away") and then they weren't ("The sugar in an apple can rot your teeth", my dentist told me.). Now, they are good for you again. And there are other examples out there.
And the other thing that should not amaze me as much as it does is grammar. How about "Coffee May Not Be a Health Drink". "Coffee Maybe Not a Health Drink!" sounds like Ebonics.
Bender: "You seem a tad wound up, buddy. And your face is greasy. Real greasy. You've been up all night?"
Fry: "Of course I've been up all night! Not because of caffeine, it was insomnia. I couldn't stop thinking about coffee. I need a nap." *snores* "Coffee time!"
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
Too much Aspartame gives me wicked headaches. Aspartame also breaks down into formaldehyde by your liver - how much or how long - I don't know, but that's what I've been told by a dietician - a real dietician from a hostpital. Not your typical "self educated" one who learned about diet from magazines thay, well, may not be the best source for that kind of information.
Saturday is April 1. Slashdot will be shut down. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Is that 5oz, 8oz, 16oz, or the venti? I drink a lot....am I gonna die now?
The hype-meter on my toolbar is pegged to the right. One questionaire, not even a clinical trial, about a substance with many, many compounds and they've got the results pegged to one allele that metabolises just one compound, caffiene, slowly. Let's put a "why do you loose sleep" on the slashdot poll. May as well conclude that slashdotters who loose sleep staying up all night do so because of cowboy neal. Well, so long as they have some odd genotype.
Blame the media's lousy science reporting or poor reading comprehension skills, but what people see as conflicting results are often nothing of the kind, they just miss the details.
I saw one study that said a single cup of coffee a day was good for athletic training, and another that said that the more coffee you drink, the lower the risk of heart disease.
This study says that more than four cups of coffee a day are bad for you if you have a particular gene.
None of these things are contradictory-- just like how a glass of wine may be beneficial, but 10 glasses may cause liver disease. Or how some types of cholesterol are good, but others are bad.
"Studies show that research causes cancer in lab rats."
Quite honestly, all that these studies keep showing is that we still really don't understand how it all works and that, for now, you should just go ahead and eat what makes you feel healthy and good.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
I quit all other drugs in my life. The only thing I have left is coffee. They can take it when they pry it from my cold (well, warmed), dead fingers. I started drinking it in college and fell in love. It's the right way to start a morning. It doesn't offend with its smell like tobacco. It doesn't impair driving like alcohol. It is the primordial source of gathering in the break room. It is the basis for the original Terry Tate, Office Linebacker skit. It gives cops something to hold along with a donut. It provided cease fires during the Civil War as the south traded tobacco for coffee with the north. It is the foundation of eclectic, bohemian establishments wherein college kids make it, and other college kids drink it (coffee shops) and also birthed some of the first public access to the Internet outside of libraries. It is a primary staple product in many South American countries. It's something that (according to my systematics professor) the English don't make very well. It revs you up before anything you need revving up for. I use it before my workout too. It is best when freshly ground and french-pressed. It has created many wonderful cups that say things on them. It gives dentists something to clean during checkups. Wtf beat it up? Study says this/study says that.
Next: water -- a study shows too much of it can make your lungs stop producing needful oxygen....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
Since it's the number of cups that makes a difference, I guess I just need to switch to a bigger cup .....
RFC2119
In this case, it may be the gene that's the poison. It appears that a gene called CYP1A2 determines how fast you metabolize caffeine, depending on which of two variants you have. People with two copies of the variant CYP1A2*1A metabolize caffeine about 4X faster than those with two copies of the other variant, CYP1A2*1F. The study found that more than 2 or 3 cups of coffee a day increases the risk of cardiovascular disease for the slow metabolizers, but may actually reduce it for those carrying CYP1A2*1A.
That could be why studies on the health effects of coffee have been all over the map. The trick is to know your genotype with regard to CYP1A2, and of course very few of us do (or can)...
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See http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn8816
Stuff is complicated. Be glad that we strive to make progress, even when it means saying, "whoops, we were wrong."
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
As with all addictive substances, it's best not to become addicted.
Two cups a day means you are addicted. If you "need" a cup a day, you are addicted.
As with anything related to toxicology, the dose is the poison.
:)
Not to mention the person's physiology. There's a reason they call the lethal dose of something the "LD50", and that's because that's the dose at which 50% of the animals they injected the substance into died. (they measure it in milligrams of drug per kiligram of animal, in case you're wondering).
Some people are immune to AIDS, some people are allergic to peanut butter, in some people Ibuprophen works for headaches, in others Asprin or Tylenol works. Sometimes people are just plain different.
There was an article in The Economist (print edition, so I wont bother linking) about how doing DNA tests on people and finding out how they would react to drugs would save a lot of time and possibly lives. The reason we don't is because it's expensive and people (all of a sudden, and seemingly on this issue alone) are concerned about privacy.
There was a reason 1 out of every 100,000 people who took Vioxx died, and it's not because Merck was "evil," it's because they simply couldn't account for all the different physiologies out there. Don't worry though, the law suits will certainly ensure higher prescription drug prices in the future, all due to ignorance and jerks like James Sokolove.
Latewire
I really don't get geeks' caffeine worship. Some seem to think that it's somehow a good thing to not be able to wake up properly before drinking half a pot of coffee.
Oh, and all you self-righteous green tea drinking hippies are no better.
It's not the dose that matters here, it's whether or not you have a particular gene that slows the metabolism of caffeine.
For folks with the gene, even two cups was harmful. For those without, the more the merrier. Please read more carefully.
I like to have a dose of espresso before meditating. It makes it more challenging. /K
From a life-long geek's perspective:
Regarding health, it will be bad for someone's if I don't get my coffee.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I don't mean to discount their identification of a genetic link (which I think is valid), and I have no idea how Costa Ricans drink their coffee, but previous research has identified a risk in unfiltered coffee like that through a percolator or French press (or Turkish, Espresso machine, etc) vs filtered coffee. Since terpenes (oils) in unfiltered coffee are suspected raising cholesterol, it is possible that elevated cholesterol levels from drinking unfiltered coffee may also play a role here.
In any case, having that gene and drinking a lot of unfiltered coffee would put a person most at risk, I would think.
A lot of who is right depends on who funded each study and what they set out to prove (or disprove) in their study.
is going to kill us!!
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
A US cup is 236 ml
Or it's 48 US teaspoons
or half a US pint, or 41.6% of a uk pint
If the cup were full of tea made out of antimatter and it combined with a cup of normal matter it would produce a blast of about
10.6 megatons
So 22g of antimatter+22g of normal matter=1 megaton. This is a very useful thing to know
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Q: " ... In light of other studies linking antioxidants in coffee to a reduction in heart disease, who is right? ..."
A: Since it's the presence of a gene that matters which is right, Check family history:
Look for heart disease or diabetes (essentially, the same thing as far as your likelihood of heart disease goes). If found, avoid coffee.
Check family history again, look for average age at death. If less than 60 for males, assume heart attack, avoid coffee.
For females, ignore childbearing age, look for deaths aged 40~60. If found, assume heart disease, avoid coffee.
If most of your ancestors and siblings seem to live past 70, assume decent heart, drink coffee.
If most live past 80, you may safely ignore cause of death, even if from heart attack, because they didn't "really" die of a heart attack, they died because they were healthy and got old, like all healthy people do and everyone dies of something. Drink coffee.
In another study, they said that caffeine can help Ashkenazi women to reduce their risk of getting breast cancer. However, the most effective dosage exceeds 4 cups.
Just like anything that a human can ingest, moderation is the key. Try drinking gallons of water in a short period and see whether that would kill you.