10 interesting health benefits of coffee

Coffee

Coffee drinking isn't always a bad thing. Recent studies and researchers have unearthed some surprising positive health benefits that regular coffee drinkers can avail of. Read on...

>> The presence of caffiene in coffee reduces the perception of effort during exercise, which many researchers believe could help people to stick to their fitness plans. (Read more)

>> A natural chemical compound called chlorogenic acid (CGA), an antioxidant present in coffee beans is thought to be beneficial in modulating sugar metabolism, controlling blood pressure and possibly treating heart disease and cancer. American researchers from the Brandeis University in Massachusetts, discovered the coffee beans that are parbaked contain the most CGA content and hence are beneficial.

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>> Drinking four to six cups of coffee daily may lower the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system - brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. (Read more)

>> Regular coffee intake can also cut Alzheimer's risk by 20 percent. Researchers at the Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam in the Netherlands found that caffeine in coffee helps prevent the formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrulary tangles in the brain - two hallmarks of Alzheimer's. (Read more)

>> Coffee can enhance your memory. Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, have found that caffeine has a positive effect on long-term memory in humans, and it can reduce forgetting things over 24 hours.

>> Coffee intake is the key to good eyesight. Researchers have said that one cup of coffee could help prevent deteriorating eyesight and possible blindness from retinal degeneration due to glaucoma, aging and diabetes. Raw coffee is, on average, just 1 percent caffeine, but it contains 7 to 9 percent chlorogenic acid, a strong antioxidant that prevents retinal degeneration in mice, according to the Cornell study.

>> Coffee drinkers are less likely to become diabetic. Researchers including an Indian origin scientist have suggested that by increasing your daily coffee consumption you can reduce your type 2 diabetes risk. People who increased the amount of coffee they drank each day by more than one cup over a four-year period had a 11 per cent lower risk for type 2 diabetes than those who made no changes to their coffee consumption. In addition, the study found that those who decreased their coffee consumption by more than a cup per day increased their type 2 diabetes risk by 17 per cent.

>> People who drink coffee regularly are less likely to die of liver cirrhosis: Researchers have said that consuming two or more cups of coffee each day reduces the risk of death from liver cirrhosis by 66 per cent, specifically cirrhosis caused by non-viral hepatitis. Lead researcher, Dr. Woon-Puay Koh with Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore and the National University of Singapore, said prior evidence suggests that coffee may reduce liver damage in patients with chronic liver disease. He said that their study examined the effects of consuming coffee, alcohol, black tea, green tea, and soft drinks on risk of mortality from cirrhosis.

>> A recent study has revealed that the caffeine in a cup of coffee might perk up your blood vessels, thereby improving your cardiovascular health. A study of 27 healthy adults showed, for the first time, that drinking a cup of caffeinated coffee significantly improved blood flow in a finger, which is a measure of how well the inner lining of the body's smaller blood vessels work. Specifically, participants who drank a cup of caffeinated coffee had a 30 percent increase in blood flow over a 75-minute period compared to those who drank decaffeinated coffee.

>> Women who like their daily coffee fix are in luck. A recent study showed that, women who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day were 15 percent less likely to experience depression; those who drank four cups or more, 20 percent less likely. (Read more)