10 Reasons to Drink Coffee Regularly

May be some of you assume that caffeine, the most widely consumed psychoactive drug in the world, must surely bad for you. Until today, researchers have conducted more than 21,000 researches on caffeine. In this article you will find a lot of surprisingly facts about caffeine and coffee.

Boost Brain Power

Caffeine can boost your brain power. This effect has been proven widely. According to Harris Lieberman, a researcher of the Military Nutrition Division of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, coffee consumption can improve your reaction time, vigilance, attention, and logical reasoning.

Caffeine can’t really change your intelligence. But it is able to heighten your mental performance. Lieberman says, “If you’re well rested, it tends to improve rudimentary brain functions, like keeping your attention focused on boring, repetitive tasks for long periods. It also tends to improve mood and makes people feel more energetic, generally better overall.”

Coffee and Pregnancy

Nowadays women are becoming more aware of the impact of diet during pregnancy. Some researches concluded that 53 % of women admitted to cutting coffee out of their diet completely whilst they were pregnant.

But, researches conducted by The Food Standards Agency, Royal College of Midwives and The Centre for Pregnancy and Nutrition agreed that consuming 300mg (3-4 cups of coffee) of caffeine every day is safe for pregnant women. However, it is important to be aware that caffeine is included in other food and drink and that these all contribute towards the 300mg recommended limit.

Coffee and Heart Attacks

In a research based on 58.888 non smokers, the researcher found no correlation between coffee and coronary artery disease, but high correlation was found in ex-smoker and base line smoker. The relation of coffee consumption to increased risk of coronary artery disease only in smokers could be explained by incomplete control for smoking. Another research, based on 44,000 women, found an inverse relationship between caffeine consumption and risk of myocardial infarction. Neither has there been any linear association found between caffeine and hypertension or adverse changes in lipids (except in boiled coffee).

Coffee consumption was associated with increased incidence of myocardial infarction only in those individuals with a genetic predisposition to slow caffeine metabolism. The other research suggested an increased risk of myocardial infarction in the first hour after coffee consumption, especially for occasional coffee drinkers.

And in 2007, scientists at Brooklyn College found that men who drank 4 cups of caffeinated coffee daily had a 53 percent lower risk of dying of heart disease than those who never took a sip.

Coffee and Cancer

The association between high coffee and tobacco consumption has, in the past, been responsible for similar health scares relating to coffee and cancer. In fact, when confounding factors such as tobacco consumption have been excluded, none of the cancers researches found strong correlation between moderate coffee consumption and cancer. Men and women who drank two or more cups of coffee every day had a 52% lower incidence of rectal cancer.

Coffee and Dehydration

Contrary to what many believe, coffee isn’t a diuretic. When one cup of coffee is drunk, the body will retain all or most of the fluid, depending on current hydration status. Caffeine was a diuretic, however, in the two studies that looked at more than 575 mg of caffeine consumption at once. Researches on caffeine have concluded that drinking more than about 300mg over a short period of time does have a mild diuretic effect. Therefore, the dehydrating effects of coffee under normal circumstances are much less than commonly perceived.

Coffee and Muscle Function

To understand how a double espresso can take you from dead tired to completely wired, you first need an introduction to the compound adenosine. Adenosine builds up naturally in your bloodstream, causing you to slow down and become sleepier. According to Lovallo, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Oklahoma, caffeine is an excellent adenosine impersonator. And this causes our central nervous system to run at a faster rate.

Caffeine may also have a direct effect on your muscles. Calcium must be released within a muscle fiber in order for that fiber to contract, and caffeine may block the adenosine receptors attached to muscle fibers, triggering electrical activity that prompts bigger bursts of calcium. “The result is a stronger muscle contraction,” says Terry Graham, a professor of human health and nutritional sciences at the University of Guelph, in Ontario. Workout researches show that consuming 140 to 400 mg of caffeine 30 to 60 minutes prior to exercise can improve both speed and endurance and make your workout seem easier.

Coffee and Parkinson

Caffeine is able to keep dopamine molecules active. Research linked regular coffee consumption to a decrease in the incidence of Parkinson’s disease. According to the research conducted by NeuroGenetics Research Consortium, coffee consumption will reduce risk of Parkinson by 20% until 30%. Harvard researchers have found that men who drink 4 cups of coffee every day reduce risk of Parkinson disease by 50%.

Coffee as Antioxidants

A research published by the American Chemical Society found that coffee (caffeinated or decaf) is the number one source of antioxidants in the American diet.

Coffee and Diabetes

According to a research that was published in Diabetes Week (Mar 24th, 2008) habitual coffee consumption is associated with lower incidence of type II diabetes. In 2005, Harvard University researchers conclude that drinking 5 cups of coffee every day cuts in half the risk of developing diabetes. Coffee’s high antioxidant content, potassium, magnesium, and B vitamins might be the reason for the protective effect.

Coffee and Alzheimer

Scientists have found that an extra espresso may even help stave off mental decline as you age, according to a 2002 research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Elderly female coffee drinkers achieved higher scores on memory and cognition tests than their non-coffee-drinking peers. What’s more, blocking adenosine may slow the buildup of amyloid-beta, a toxic brain plaque that’s associated with Alzheimer’s disease.