Coffee

Coffee is the most traded commodity in the world. Many millions of people consume coffee every day –
as either a favorite drink – or a daily ‘fix’ or both. Not many people think about whether it is a health
drink or not. Often the traditional naturopathic advice is to keep your coffee consumption to a minimum,
and for sure there are times when over stimulation from the effects of coffee is not good for your health.

Are there other sides to the story? Could the effects of coffee have it’s place as part of a healthy
lifestyle?

Some good news about the effects of coffee…

Recent research has found new health benefits in drinking our favourite brew – Coffee!

An article in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, quotes a study by Dr. Susanna Larsson of
the National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute in Sweden. She found that:

“Women who drink more than one cup of coffee per day appear to have a 22 to 25% lower risk of stroke
compared to women who drink less”.

How should you take your coffee?

Coffee beans are high in antioxidants. Organic black coffee without sugar, or artificial sweeteners is the
best way to drink it.

Decaffeinated coffee leaves just enough caffeine to combine with the mystery compound and so it has
some of the health benefits of regular coffee. (Make sure you drink only decaffeinated coffee produced
with the water/steam method, not chemicals.)

How much coffee should you drink?

This is a tricky one since both people and coffee strength vary but in the literature 2-3 cups per day is
mentioned as the ‘therapeutic level’.

What happens if you drink too much coffee?

Too much can make you feel jittery

Drinking coffee too late in the day may interfere with your sleep patterns

Coffee is a diuretic, so make sure you drink enough good quality water to make up for any excess lost of
fluids

Watch out if you have kidney or bladder problems for the same reason

Coffee is an adrenal stimulant; it’s what makes it so desirable for many people. This means that it can
overwork your adrenal glands, causing them to produce too much adrenaline and can lead to adrenal
exhaustion, lowering another adrenal hormone, cortisol. You will thenfeel extremely tired and not be
able to cope with stress

Here in Australia we have some of the best coffee in the world. It took us a while to adopt the Italian way
of doing things, but once we did we haven’t looked back! Maybe the Italians with their Espresso and
glass of Aqua Minerale just knew a thing or two!!

However, you won’t often find a Naturopath who tells you to “drink more coffee” – especially since
Naturopaths take a wholistic view, advising on diet and total lifestyle. This includes recommending the
supplements which can help you most for healing and disease prevention. If you are one of those people
who use coffee as a stimulant to get through the day, their advice may be to drink less coffee and look at
alternative ways to bring your energy into balance.

People in the UK drink around 55 million cups of coffee a day, according to the British Coffee Association.

The variety of ways in which people drink their coffee has expanded rapidly - as well as instant and
filtered coffee, you can order a latte with a host of dairy-free milks.

But over the years there has been much about whether frequent coffee consumption could harm health
in the same way as smoking and excessive amounts of alcohol.

Doctors warned that it could increase risk of heart disease, and damage the digestive tract.

However, more recently, studies have shown that a regular caffeine hit won't harm us.

Indeed, no significant link has been identified between caffeine in coffee and heart-related problems
such as heart attack, stroke, high cholesterol and irregular heartbeats.

Additionally, keeping consumption below three cups a day didn't have a negative effect on fertility,
according to a study published in the Nutrition Journal earlier this year.

Here are three reasons why you should drink coffee for your health.

Coffee and stroke

The World Heart Federation states that every year 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke. Nearly six
million die and another five million are left permanently disabled. Stroke is the second leading cause of
disability after dementia. Globally, stroke is the second leading cause of death above the age of 60 years,
and the fifth leading cause of death in people aged 15 to 59 years old70.

In many developed countries the incidence of stroke is declining even though the actual number of
strokes is increasing because of the aging population. In the developing world, however, the incidence of
stroke is increasing.

Research shows that moderate coffee consumption may reduce the risk of stroke, and limit the
deleterious consequences of suffering a stroke.
A prospective study of 26,556 male Finnish smokers reported that the relative risk of developing a non-
hemorrhagic stroke was significantly reduced by 12% with the consumption of 4-5 cups of coffee per day.
The risk was reduced further to 23% in the heaviest consumers (≥ six cups per day) compared to those
who drank less than 2 cups per day. However, coffee consumption did not protect against intra-cerebral
or subarachnoid hemorrhage71.

This association was extended to women in a study where 34,670 women were followed up
prospectively. Coffee consumption (2-5 cups per day) was associated with a significant 22-25% risk
reduction of total stroke, cerebral infarction, and subarachnoid hemorrhage but not intra-cerebral
hemorrhage72.

The prospective Nurses’ Health Study of 83,076 women also reported a 20% reduced risk of stroke with
the consumption of 2-4 cups coffee per day, compared to one cup per month. The association was
stronger among never and past smokers, with a risk reduction of 43% with 4 cups a day. Other drinks
containing caffeine, such as tea and caffeinated soft drinks, were not associated with stroke73.

A 2011 meta-analysis including eleven prospective studies, with 10,003 cases of stroke among 479,689
participants, found that moderate coffee consumption may be weakly, non-linearly, inversely associated
with risk of stroke74.

In a further study, 10 patients who suffered a cortical stroke were given a caffeinol mixture injection
(approximately eight to nine mg/kg caffeine – the equivalent of 5-7 cups of coffee – with 0.3-0.4 g/kg
ethanol, or two doses of strong alcohol), and fibrinolysis with tissular plasminogen activator (t-PA ), in
the 134 min following the first clinical signs. The efficacy of the cocktail was optimal when administered
during the first 95 minutes. Among the 10 patients treated with caffeinol, six had preserved activities
and autonomy, while this was only the case in 26% of the 90 patients treated in a classical manner75.
The mechanisms of action underlying these effects could involve the inhibition of adenosine receptors by
caffeine, and the receptors of the main inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA, by ethanol but await further
validation.