Coffee, to drink or not to drink, that is the question......

From the desk of Christopher B. Renne, D.C.

Some News That Will Perk You Up

Hey folks, here I am enjoying a nice steaming cuppa joe. If you are like many people, you depend on one to two cups of coffee to get you through the day. But is coffee good for you or bad for you? Health experts have long blamed coffee for a laundry list of scary stuff, for everything from high anxiety, to heart disease, to high blood pressure, to cancer!

But the thing about good medical science is that it doesn’t rest on its laurels. Research on coffee continues, and a new study has come out that has some good news for coffee drinkers! The European Journal of Nutrition conducted a randomized trial on 84 men for several weeks and found something surprising: the men who drank coffee had a significant reduction in damage to their DNA. That means that over the course of their lives those men are less likely to suffer from disease and more likely to live longer. Wow. Way to go, coffee!

This isn’t the only recent study which is redeeming coffee in the eyes of doctors. Doctors used to steer patients with heart problems away from coffee. Now they encourage them to drink more of it. Yes, a study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard School of Public Health concluded that drinking coffee in moderation protects against heart failure!

So what’s the deal with coffee anyway? I’ll let Dr. David Friedman explain why it has such a powerful effect on our bodies both for good and ill:

“The caffeine in coffee is a central nervous system stimulant which has physiological effects very similar to drugs, such as amphetamine and cocaine. This caffeine can be addictive and if you deprive your body of its java fix, it can lead to withdrawal symptoms like headaches, nausea and lightheadedness. Okay, it’s addicting; that doesn’t sound good. But since coffee is also loaded with health enhancing phytonutrients, vitamins, and enzymes, is being addicted to it really such a bad thing?”

Just like with most things, moderation is important. Too much coffee can definitely be bad for you. Research seems to indicate that 1-3 cups of coffee per day is just about right for most of us. Be sure to listen to your body, though. If coffee makes you feel bad or upsets your stomach, you may need to stay away from it.

It’s also important to remember that all this research has been conducted using simple black coffee. Milk, sugar, and cream taste great, but too much of that stuff can lead to weight gain, which can lead to inflammation in the body; that can cause all types of ailments from arthritis, to diabetes, to heart disease. So take it easy on those ‘venti mocha lattes’ at Starbucks! Instead, try substituting natural sweeteners like honey or the natural sugar alternative called Xylitol.

For more information about what the research says about coffee, you can check out Dr. Friedman’s article on the subject here.

Yours in health,

Christopher B. Renne, D.C.

Active Medical & Chiropractic

4111 Atlantic Blvd

Jacksonville, Fl. 32207

www.activechirocenter.com