Health Benefits of Coffee?

There is a lot of debate about whether or not coffee is good for health. While many people believe that coffee must be bad for you, research shows drinking 1 or 2 cups of coffee a day could have very positive effects on your health. At the same time, research also concludes that drinking too much coffee has a negative health impact. The prevailing wisdom is that consuming more than three or four cups of coffee per day is bad for your health. Keep reading to learn more about the potential effects of drinking coffee on your health.

People who drink two or more cups of coffee on a daily basis increase their risk to develop osteoporosis. Research conducted with about one thousand different women discovered that drinking plenty of coffee can deter the body’s ability to absorb a little of the necessary vitamins and minerals from the diet. This can lead the body to develop osteoporosis, which is a marked reduction in bone density usually linked to elderly people. Yet, some heavy coffee drinkers have been found to have decreasing bone density. Of course, there of other factors in the lifestyle that could account for the early onset of osteoporosis. These include smoking, alcohol and using hormones. The study also mentioned that a lot of the bad effects of drinking a lot of coffee might be decreased by putting milk in the coffee.

Cirrhosis of the liver is found fewer times in in coffee drinkers than in most others. Cirrhosis can be a symptom or leading cause of chronic liver disease whereby the normally liver tissue begins to be replaced by nodules etc. These can stop the liver functioning normally. Many people will benefit from the anti-fibrotic qualities in coffee. Caffeine has also been positively linked to a lowered risk of liver cancer, which is a cancer that often occurs in patients already diagnosed with cirrhosis.

It is a commonly held belief that caffeine raises the risk of high blood pressure but no formal studies have come to that conclusion. For people who drink too much coffee, anxiety or irritability is a common side effect. Resisting stress becomes difficult for some people after drinking coffee. In these cases people will feel anxious or stressed about things that do not ordinarily bother them. Symptoms of stress in this situation may include irregular heartbeat, higher blood pressure, or an increased heart rate. Heavy coffee drinkers are especially likely to experience this.

Don’t forget that even though there are good benefits for drinking coffee there are plenty of negative effects to remain cautious about. Play it safe by drinking in moderation. If you partake, only in moderation, you can benefit from the good health effects of coffee without facing the risks that drinking too much coffee poses.