Study: Coffee Lowers Stroke Risk in Women

Good news, coffee lovers: Having a cup—or five—a day may slash your stroke
risk, a new study suggests. Swedish researchers followed nearly 35,000 women
ages 49 to 83 for 10 years, and found that those who drank at least one cup of
joe per day had a 22 to 25 percent lower risk of stroke than those who drank
less or none at all. The benefit was seen regardless of whether the women
downed one cup or more than five daily, according to the study published
Thursday in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Although the
women didn't specify if their brew was regular or decaffeinated, very few
people drink decaf in Sweden, the researchers said. Exactly why coffee may
protect against stroke is unclear, but the researchers speculate that it
reduces inflammation and improves insulin resistance—both risk factors for
stroke. Coffee is also packed with antioxidants, which are known to benefit
health. "Coffee drinkers should rejoice," Sharonne Hayes, a cardiologist at the
Mayo Clinic, told the Associated Press. "There really hasn't been any study
that convincingly said coffee is bad. If you are drinking coffee now, you may
be doing some good and you are likely not doing harm." Still, there's no reason
to develop a coffee habit based on the results. The study doesn't prove cause
and effect, and the authors say more research is needed to understand the
health effects of coffee consumption.

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Is Coffee Bad for You? Actually, Drinking Coffee May Be Good for You

It's believed to improve mood, alertness, and energy. But is coffee bad for
you? Despite past concerns about coffee, tea, and other sources of caffeine
being detrimental to health, research suggests that regular coffee consumption
may reduce the risk of health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's
disease, and liver cancer—and regular coffee drinkers might even live longer.
"For most people [who] choose to drink coffee, the benefits probably outweigh
the risks," says Donald Hensrud, chair of the division of preventive medicine
at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

"In the past, a lot of people have tried to improve their health by cutting
down on coffee," says Rob M. van Dam, assistant professor of nutrition and
epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. But that's probably an
unnecessary sacrifice, U.S. News reported in June 2009. Although experts once
thought caffeine was harmful, "studies have been largely reassuring," he says.
In the past, it has been hard to differentiate the health effects of coffee
versus those tied to smoking cigarettes, since heavy coffee drinkers are more
likely to smoke than other people.

Coffee is "not only a vehicle for caffeine," says van Dam. "It has a lot of
other components." It's likely that those other components—such as antioxidants
and fiber—account for some of coffee's health benefits, experts say. "We always
hear about tea, and especially green tea, being a good source of antioxidants,
but it's been reported that coffee may be the largest source of antioxidants
among people who drink it," says Hensrud. More research is needed to understand
how these other ingredients might benefit health among coffee drinkers.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/womens-health/articles/2011/03/11/health-buzz-coffee-tied-to-lower-stroke-risk