With finals week fast approaching many of us college students will find ourselves staying up late into the night to prepare for the upcoming exams, and though we may not plan on it, coffee will become our new best friend. With so many people drinking coffee on a daily basis its no wonder that the science community has taken up an interest with coffee’s short and long term effects.
We’ve all heard the myths, coffee is terrible for your health, it can lead to heart problems and maybe even cancer in our future’s, but how much is rooted in reliable studies seems to be unclear.
Lucky for people like me who happen to rely on coffee on a daily basis, some studies seem to suggest the exact opposite of the supposed health risks surrounding the highly addictive beverage. A study conducted by Harvard School of Public Health found no relation between daily coffee consumption and an increase in mortality. The study included about 130,000 volunteers all above the age of forty, and while the large amount leaves less room for error, the age of the volunteers shouldn’t really reassure anyone our age that a lifetime consumption of the drink is without consequence.
While this study and a few others point in the direction of coffee being almost harmless, one has to wonder about the hundreds of other experiments claiming the risks of coffee are simply to high to even entertain. So what’s the truth? I obviously can’t claim to know where the change originated, but I do remember my grandmother smoking each time she had a coffee, and she certainly wasn’t alone. Coffee and cigarettes seem to have a strong connection with many people, so it is completely plausible that many past studies didn’t take this into consideration when they ruled coffee as the main perpetrator when it came to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Of course this all speculation.
Though when it comes to the study conducted by Harvard, a closer look is obviously required. We can pretty safely rule out reverse causation, unless heart disease and certain cancers increase ones desire to drink coffee, which seems highly unlikely. The study seems to suggest that any correlation between coffee drinking and increased mortality in the past was simply due to coincidence or poor execution of experiments and has noting to do with causation.
This would be the best case scenario for me and anyone else planning on surviving finals using coffee, though it may not be the truth. It’s a personal decision certainly, whether to continue drinking coffee, but if you have any recent studies advising against drinking coffee I wouldn’t mind reading up on them, I know I rely too heavily on the stuff as it is, and this study has, if not encouraged me then at least reassured me that I’m not doing too much damage yet.
Works:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/coffee/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/coffee-and-health/faq-20058339
Personally I don’t drink coffee I have never really liked the taste and I think natural energy is the best way to go even sometimes when you have none. But because of your blog I decided to do some research on coffee and its effects because I have always thought that in excess it wasn’t very good for you. It turns out that there aren’t too many downsides to coffee. I wanted to relate this to an earlier blog written about running and how it can shorten your life. Coffee is fine in moderation and actually prevents type-2 diabetes, and reduces risk for some cancers, and protection against Parkinson’s disease according to a Time article found here: http://time.com/3145435/is-coffee-bad-for-you/. The article warned not to just go chugging gallons of coffee though because there still are some reasons to be careful. Some people like pregnant women and people with cholesterol issues should not drink coffee because it can cause a miscarriage and heighten cholesterol levels. Also people are affected when they drink too much much like extreme running that can end up hurting you because anything done in excess can hurt you. Drinking too much can cause insomnia and a racing heart but otherwise it seems like a great drink and I think I may need to give it another chance during finals week.
This is extremely interesting. I personally never drink coffee, never even had it once to be honest. But my parents both drink coffee every day and i was so curious to know about the health benefits and drawbacks of coffee. Reading this relieved me a bit because I too thought that coffee was bad for your health and could lead to long-term illnesses. I’ll be sure to inform my parents on this new information!
I also drink coffee regularly despite what studies may say. In regard to the accusation that coffee stunts your growth I have been drinking regular coffee since before I hit puberty and I am currently over six feet tall. So I don’t believe that coffee does stunt growth. I also do not think that coffee has any correlation to smoking cigarettes, as I said before I drink coffee regularly and do not smoke cigarettes or feel an urge to when I am drinking coffee. These charts show that 60% of Americans start their days off with coffee, but only around 20% of the nation smokes cigarettes. These statistics make me further think that there is no correlation between coffee and smoking.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/coffee-drinking-statistics/
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html
I’m a huge coffee person as well, and studies have never stopped me from drinking coffee either. One of the only things I’ve heard about coffee, is how it can stunt your growth. For me personally, I do not think that has happened to me. I agree with you when you say its a personal decision when it comes to drinking coffee. Tea can contain caffeine, so if a person needs help staying up that can be another tasty way. My family is filled with coffee drinkers who has been drinking it for years and no problems have come their way. This post was a really interesting one, and I’m going stick to my coffee drinking just like you.