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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.
"the difference between medication and poison is the dose"
So say we all
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"
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.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
"Studies have shown that research causes cancer in lab rats."
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.
I'm sorry, I don't speak Starbucks.
Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
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
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.
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.
Your symptoms (rapid pulse, dizziness) could be an adrenergic response to hypoglycemia.
When this happens, do you experience difficulty concentrating? (Neuroglycopenia) And does it subsequently go away when you ingest food, especially sugar? Do you experience frequent urination during the recovery phase? If it's Hypoglycemia, it is actually very dangerous for your brain.
Caffeine's kick comes from its ability to expedite the transport of sugar from the blood to the tissues. The occasionally dangerous side effect is that if you have a problem with your diet and/or anrednal glands, since caffeine creates this metabolic illusion of an energy boost, the combination can sometimes result in depleting the blood of sugar faster than this sugar can be replenished. Then you crash dangerously hard, experiencing what insulin-dependent diabetics refer to as a "hypo."
When your brain detects low blood sugar, it triggers the release of adrenalin and cortisol which are stress hormones, and this causes your body to release emergency sugar from other sources, such as stored glucagon from your liver.
So most of the unpleasant effects of hypoglycemia are actually your body's defense against it. But you are 100% right to avoid coffee if it does that to you, since this is a warning sign. Coffee does not do this to everybody.
Whatever the problem is, things can likely be brought back into balance just by eating moderate balanced meals, and having healthy snacks between meals and before bed. If you eat a lot of sugar, take it with some protein and/or fat so that your pancreas never gets habitually braced for dealing with big jolts of sugar... because it'll get itself into a mode where it produces too much insulin at the wrong time... which can be as dangerous as the legendary diabetic insulin overdose. So ironically, too much sugar can cause hypoglycemia.
Definitely talk to a Dietician.
Possibly at some point in the future, you might consult an Endocrinologist if you've been bingeing on high-sugar foods, and you think you might be at risk of developing type II diabetes or something like hyperinsulinism or hypoglycemia. (The latter two may actually be somewhat common. It's the diagnosis for them which is exceedingly rare, since they are both very difficult to get clinically diagnosed. Pretty much only the textbook cases that present under ideal circumstances will ever get diagnosed.) You almost have to be pretty sick before an Endocrinologist will be able to help you.
Good luck...
PS:
I personally had just one episode of "reactive hypoglycemia" involving just one strong coffee, a skipped breakfast and some physical exertion, and it felt exactly like the experiences you describe having with coffee. I did not lose consciousness, but the experience did leave me with some very subtle brain damage... (which I seem to be adapting to finally after 6 weeks.)
Your dietician needs to go back to med school. Yes, aspartame breaks down to formadehyde as the tail end of the process of your small intestine converting it to methanol. Formaldehyde (from methanol) is a normal chemical to be found in your body as a normal byproduct of normal digestion.
The amount of methanol produced by Aspartame in the body is 10% of the ingested aspartame. Assuming all the methonal is further converted to formadehyde, a normal 12 oz soft drink causes only 1/6th the amount of methonal production as an equivalent drink of Tomato Juice (which contains no Aspartame, but contains other "natural" chemicals that produce methanol).
The actual numbers are this:
A 12 oz diet soda contains 225 mg of Aspartame (approximately 0.05% of the drink is aspartame). That generates 22.5 mg of methanol, or about 0.005% of the drink will become methanol. We will assume all the methanol becomes formaldehyde (worst case). The LD50 of formaldehyde is 100mg/kg. For an average male of 75 kg, that would mean 7500mg. A total of 333 sodas must be drank by this average male to assure death, and they must be drank fast enough to counteract the body's natural ability to rid itself of formaldehyde.
Of course, hyponatremia will set in, without exercise or dry heat, with drinking about 3 or more litres of fluid per hour, for serveral hours straight. 333 sodas will contain 3996 oz of liquid, or about 118 litres. Anyone attempting death through ingestion of Aspartame by soda comsumption will surely die of hyponatremia far before they have reached even small amount of their goal!
Feel free to ask your dietician to verify this!
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
A lot of who is right depends on who funded each study and what they set out to prove (or disprove) in their study.
I must drink coffee. It is the mind filler. It is the little shot that brings total caffeination. I will taste my coffee. I will allow it to pass through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the coffee has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Then I must drink more coffee. It is the mind filler...
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.