Coffee: What’s The Verdict?

Coffee

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From an early age, we are all warned about the dangers of drug addiction, but how many of us realized as children that almost everyone in society is addicted something most people don’t even recognize as a drug? That’s right, we’re talking about caffeine.

It’s hard to think of a single drug out there that has so many users. Countless millions of people drink it every day, a great deal of whom are literally chemically dependent upon it just to function. For most, the method of choice for getting their caffeine fix is coffee.

 

Coffee is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug in the world

The average person drinks 1-5 cups a day. Many people wouldn’t dream of starting their day without it.

Everyone knows that the primary reason for drinking coffee is that it wakes you up and makes you more focused and alert. The average cup of coffee contains between 90 and 150 mg of caffeine. It’s important to determine what the total health benefits and risks of something we consume so regularly are.

Let’s examine the additional benefits of coffee below:

 

1. Coffee reduces your risk of neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Perhaps it’s due to coffee’s ability to stimulate brain function. Multiple studies have shown that coffee can protect your brain from these debilitating conditions in your old age.

A study published in the European Journal of Neurology showed that regular coffee drinkers had an amazing 65% reduction in their risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Other studies found that drinking coffee was associated with a reduction in the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by up to 60%.

 

2. Better Liver Health.

The liver is an absolutely essential organ. In the event of liver failure, it’s pretty much game over unless that person unless has a transplant.

The liver is particularly sensitive to alcohol. Alcoholics frequently suffer from cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver so damaged it is nearly non-functional. Cirrhosis can occur for other reasons though, and also in people who do not drink. Cancer of the liver is also a serious common form of disease.

The good news is that coffee can be surprisingly good at protecting your liver. Studies have shown that coffee can reduce your chances of developing cirrhosis by over 80%, and can even protect from further liver damage in those with livers severely damaged by alcoholism.

A review of 4 cohort and 5 case-control studies found that simply drinking 2 cups of coffee a day led to a 43% reduction in the risk of liver cancer.

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