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Links between coffee and health
- mirimir 11y ago> A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems. Said by Alfréd Rényi about his friend Paul Erdos.
- pygy_ 11y agoAnd a comathematician is a device for turning cotheorems into ffee.
- happyscrappy 11y agoErdos was on serious high test, Benzedrine. He quit for a while but said his math suffered too much.
- jjgreen 11y agoIIRC his friends asked him to stop for a month, and then to see how he felt. "You have put back mathematics by a month" he said at the end, and promptly went back on the pills.
- mirimir 11y agoYes, I saw that too. But amphetamines have some nasty side effects. Methamphetamine was the standard military "go pill" for decades. Then dextroamphetamine. Now there's interest in modafinil, which has milder side effects.[0,1] [0] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22764609 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22764609 [1] http://goflightmedicine.com/stimulants-sleep-aids/ http://goflightmedicine.com/stimulants-sleep-aids/
- buffoon 11y ago“That first cup of coffee in the morning is happiness.” Chopra said. “It’s a real joy.” That's what I thought. The I went through a rough patch with no money as a student and couldn't afford it. The first two weeks taught me that it was actually a monkey on my back. I can't think of a better term but I felt like boiled shit. I only drink water now.
- douche 11y agoHow poor do you have to be that you can't afford coffee? Maybe not the $5 a cup starbucks bullshitaccino, but you can get a cheap electric drip pot and a month's worth of grounds for $20.
- mathgeek 11y agoSome folks go through their university years without much discretionary income.
- buffoon 11y agoYou're right but if I'm honest, for me it was because I pissed all my cash on a powerbook instantly and forgot to budget for stuff like food ;-) I still own that powerbook and it still works and thanks to it I learned to cook so it was a good investment in the long run.
- douche 11y agoNo shit, I was one of them. But we're talking the kind of money you can make in an afternoon of unskilled manual labor, to set you up for a semester's worth of coffee.
- cozzyd 11y agoYou don't even need the drip pot, you can always make it on the stove like my grandparents...
- ricw 11y agoFrom wikipedia's caffeine article: "Caffeine can increase blood pressure and cause vasoconstriction.[37][38][39] Long term consumption at sufficiently high doses has been associated with chronic arterial stiffness.[39] Coffee and caffeine can affect gastrointestinal motility and gastric acid secretion.[40][41][42] Caffeine increases basal metabolic rate in adults.[43][44][45] In postmenopausal women, high caffeine consumption can accelerate bone loss.[46][47]" I wonder how partial this article and/or harvards caffeine research is.. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Side_effects https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Side_effects
- davidcollantes 11y agoYet, my grandfather and his friends drank it--coffee--their entire lives, and they all died in their late 90s. A few of them also smoked. We all know it is a combination of things: the food you eat, how active you are, the air you breathe, the work you do, etc.
- axx 11y agoI agree. If you eat Mc Donald's all day, but drink X cups of coffee, it wouldn't make a difference.
- dghughes 11y agoA hamburger made at home is no better than McDonald's if you eat them every day too McDonald's is just a restaurant no the Devil.
- scorpioxy 11y agoI disagree. A hamburger you make at home is unlikely to contain the crap that is in a McDonald's burger. If you get actual meat, add a few veggies and a whole wheat bun then a burger can become an excellent meal. It's even better if you skip the fries.
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- reedlaw 11y agoThe video and research highlights imply that 2 or more cups a day is more beneficial but personally I feel the dependency created by such large amounts of caffeine would outweigh the benefits. Even at one cup a day an interruption such as travel causes withdrawal symptoms such as headaches. That means you'd have to always bring coffee with you or stay within easy reach of a cafe. Not much fun when your travel or activities don't include daily time out for coffee.
- jacalata 11y agoNot everyone experiences that kind of dependance, if you do then yea, it might be a problem.
- reedlaw 11y agoAnecdotally, I've found most people who don't experience withdrawal never cease consuming coffee long enough. People who drank enormous amounts daily and suddenly quit tend to experience severe withdrawal symptoms.
- nmrm2 11y agoIt's also a matter of how much you're drinking. I take two weeks off from drinking coffee each year (not because of the coffee, it just works out that way). I had horrible withdrawal the first year, and switched from 3ish cups of American style coffee to 3ish shots of espresso with water or milk. Same amount of liquid, but considerably less caffeine. I haven't had withdrawal problems since.
- jacalata 11y agoBut your first comment was about a habit of even one cup a day leading you to be unable to travel for fear of withdrawal. I don't think that's a massive amount, and I'm curious how long you think is "long enough" to induce withdrawal.
- reedlaw 11y ago
- hippo8 11y agoI love coffee, I drink atleast 2 cups a day, I love hearing that coffee is good for me, but it still makes me wonder if any of this information about coffee is misinformation. After all, doctors and scientists are human.. for instance, http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2008/smoking/smoking_01.jpg http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2008/smoking/smoking...
- ekianjo 11y agoDoctors tend to be actually heavy smokers, from my experience. I have talked about this with a couple of them and they say that it helps them facing the stress of their everyday duties - even though they are aware of the health risks.
- saiya-jin 11y agoa lot of them are borderline or full blown alcoholics too. this stems from the job they do - depressing, stressful, often under-appreciated. they know the effects of addictions too well, but at the end, they are still only human beings like rest of us...
- mrestko 11y agoIn the U.S. at least, doctors smoke at a much lower rate than the general population. It might be that they stand-out more when smoking if you know that they are physicians.
- peter303 11y agoWell established ways of conduction medical studies that dont depend on doctor quirks. They can establish a mathematically significant correlation. Correlation doesnt establish causality.
- vjvj 11y agoTo me this reads like a sponsored article/advert. The research wreaks of the type that is sponsored by a corporate/brand who would benefit from improved public perception of coffee.
- ekianjo 11y agoOh so you have some good sources about negative literature about coffee? because I'd certainly like to see some if you are knowledgeable about that. I don't see why "drinking coffee is good" is any more controversial than "eating fruits is good". When people talk about the benefits of fruit juices do you accuse them of sponsorship ?
- h152190 11y agoThat's a bad examples. Whole fruits are obviously healthier. but juices have almost as much sugar as coke because they are so concentrated and lack fiber which is actually what makes fruits so healthy in the first place.
- ekianjo 11y agoWell if you dont want to talk about fruit, then talk about Tea. There's about zero debate about tea being not healthy, and I don't see massive differences between a tea-based drink and a coffee based drink - they actually have lots of commonalities.
- nkozyra 11y ago"Healthy" is such an abstract concept that it's really not a useful metric, though. Even if we say "healthy" means a prevention of disease and/or a longer lifespan, tea still needs the "in moderation" addendum. Fluorosis is common among people who drink large quantities of certain types of green tea, for example, and fruit juice could obviously contribute to diabetes. Having one alcoholic drink a night has a lot of measured benefit that disappears when you pass 2 drinks. In other words, "healthy" (as defined above) is not an attribute of just the substance but also the quantity and duration and a bunch of other important things. Which is why "_____ is good for you!" can be generally discarded as standalone advice.
- freshfey 11y agoI love tea and coffee, albeit tea more which is why I created a tea blend (disclaimer: I run actiontea.com). Seeing studies and science like this makes me wonder though. People do know that coffee and tea is healthy for them, so why use it still in advertisment? Smoking is bad for people, yet people do not need convincing to continue consumption. Is it an additional argument for you when you're buying coffee or tea, that it's healthy for you?
- Fede_V 11y agoThis is a difficult topic to study properly, because: - Coffee consumption is not uniform throughout the population. For example, I'm willing to wager that people that eat a lot of truffles and Beluga caviar are among the healthiest and longest living people in the world. Anyone care to wager why? - Long term controlled studies on human subjects are tricky. Can you imagine taking 100 people at random (not volunteers!) and forcing half to drink coffee, and half not to drink coffee for 30 years? - Plausible mechanisms are always incredibly easy to postulate since we still have lots of things we do not understand about the human metabolism. Unless the effect is very, very strong, observational studies are going to be rife with false positives and spurious correlations due to Simpson's paradox. Ignore this awful article, and almost all dietary advice in this vein.
- reader5000 11y agoThese are fine points, but if we factor in the probability that researchers carrying out these studies took them into account, we don't need to ignore "almost all dietary advice in this vein."
- Fede_V 11y agoI would agree with this if researchers were not under insane pressure to produce findings (as opposed to understanding). If a researcher designs a great experiment, but after collecting and analyzing all the data comes to the conclusion that there is no link between eating chocolate and health, then she will a horrible time publishing it in a respected science journal, even if that's what the data says.
- peter303 11y agoAlgorithm: studies published in even number months say coffee is good for you. Odd number, bad for you.
- bholdr 11y agoCorrelation doesn't mean causation.
- cryoshon 11y agoThis is a pretty interesting article, and there's been a lot of positive research regarding coffee consumption in the past few years. I am a coffee fanatic, and hope that my three cups a day will lead me to a longer life. I have a lot of ideas for future directions of study regarding coffee: my primary interest is teasing the health impacts of espresso beans vs regular beans in varying roast states, if there are any such differences. Additionally, I wonder if there's any studies on the social impact of coffee consumption. I take most of my coffee alone, but I used to have a raucous coffee group a few years back, and it's well understood that social interaction is good for your health. I also wonder if there's any studies which examine the rates and contexts/reasons that people in different professions consume coffee. All of the lawyers/scientists/doctors/software engineers I know tend to always have a cup in hand-- especially the doctors.
- jhallenworld 11y agoSurprised they don't mentioned anxiety. I cut back on caffeine because I seem to get anxiety for no reason when I have too much. I started to drink more tea, but annoyingly I have kidney stones and tea has a lot of oxalate. No such problem with coffee.
- INTPnerd 11y agoCoffee is addictive, takes time to make and consume, and costs money. Even if you make it cheaply at home, this is still money and time you would not need to spend if you were not addicted to it. The more often you drink it, the more you need to drink it every day in order to feel normal. You get to the point to where you need to make it a part of your morning routine. Our lives are complicated enough without it. What happens when you have one of those mornings where you simply don't have time to make coffee? You have to buy some somewhere, which is even more time consuming and expensive and typically creates temptation to buy a less healthy coffee. Coffee is acidic. It kills the good bacteria in your gut, which goes against the very core of taking care of your health. Because it quickly gives you an energy jolt, it is an addictive drug. Any time you introduce a drug like that into your body, your body adjusts to it. Whatever body function was necessary to achieve the affect the drug does for you starts doing less work, which always has bad side effects because it goes against how your body is designed. Caffeine consumption negatively affects your sleep, which is another key to health. Most people feel that as long as they don't consume it too late in the afternoon, it does not affect their sleep. But what happens when you regularly consume an addictive drug that gives you an energy jolt? Over time you need more and more of it to feel normal. Eventually you will need at least a small amount of it in the afternoon in order to not feel exhausted and be able to continue to be a productive, happy person into the late afternoon and evening. If want to, go ahead and believe these studies conducted by people you don't know, who haven't earned your trust. Believe that they conducted it in an intelligent and controlled way. Believe that they interpreted the results correctly. Believe that it is totally impossible that someone paid someone to get the results they wanted to publish. Or you can become in tune with your own body and reason about experiences you have had and will have.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoFortunately its relatively cheap, universally available, and extremely effective. It could be considered the best, simplest performance drug possible. As for emotional arguments about 'going against your body' that's religion. Your body was designed to resist constant parasitic infestation, never be washed and exercise hard every day, all day. Who wants to live that way? You could consider 3 meals a day as 'going against your body'.
- kaitai 11y agoIt seems that some people use coffee as, say, a stimulant to try to deal with ADHD. I wonder how much this self-medication impacts the results. Perhaps unusually, I recently did a little self-inventory and decided to consciously up my coffee consumption. At this point it seems to have a good effect on my ability to concentrate, and I could see this improving other health outcomes as it increases follow-through on exercise etc. (Caffeine may also reduce DOMS symptoms, again allowing for more exercise. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24164961 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24164961)
- DanBC 11y agoThe cochrane collaboration have a nice document about what we know about caffeine and health. http://www.evidentlycochrane.net/caffeine-and-health-evidence-from-cochrane/ http://www.evidentlycochrane.net/caffeine-and-health-evidenc... It's a short list.
- brianbarker 11y agoCoffee is awesome. If you don't love it and appreciate a good brew, you're missing out on life.
- SimeVidas 11y agoDefine “cup”. How many grams of ground coffee is that?
- karmakaze 11y ago> repeatedly that none of the patients with liver ailments drank coffee I did a time-management course, a part of which required writing down how I spend my work hours. I saw an hourly cycle of get coffee, work 1 hour, pee, repeat. If i was drinking enough water to pee hourly my liver may also be great!
- jdlyga 11y agoIn other news, 4 out of 5 doctors agree that smoking Camel cigarettes is good for the throat!