The Benefits of Drinking Coffee

Note: The blogger received an email from a friend BH Sim regarding the many benefits of drinking COFFEE and forwarded it to many e-buddies and friends.  He is much indebted to Dr JB Lim for offering a professional opinion which is posted below to share with readers of this blog. 

The original email:

This is DRINK for thought !

Kopi-O KOSONG- good for you! Without milk or creamer and less/no sugar.

By Sylvia Booth Hubbard, Newsmax

For many years, coffee was considered a vice, linked with sleepless nights and cigarettes.

But scientists have discovered that coffee contains potent antioxidants that can fight numerous ailments, including heart disease and diabetes.

According to the American Coffee Association, 54% of Americans drink coffee on a daily basis, and they drink, on average, over three cups each.

The diseases coffee can benefit include:

Dementia

Drinking moderate amounts of coffee during middle age - classified as three to five cups daily - can decrease the risk of dementia by 65%, according to a 2009 study by Swedish and Finnish researchers.

Liver disease

In those who drink too much alcohol, those who drank the most coffee - more than four cups every day - reduced their risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis by 80%.

Heart disease

Research associated with The Nurses' Health Study found that women who drank two to three cups of coffee daily had a 25% lower risk of dying from heart disease. Along the same line, a Spanish study found that men who drank more than five cups of coffee each day lowered their risk of dying from heart disease by 44%, and that women who drank four to five cups each day reduced their risk by 34%.

Prostate cancer

A recent study from Harvard Medical School found that men who drank the most coffee slashed their risk of developing the fastest growing and most difficult to treat prostate cancers by more than half when compared to men who drank no coffee.

Gout

Drinking four or more cups of coffee each day dramatically reduces the incidence of gout, say U.S. and Canadian researchers. Men who drank four to five cups daily lowered their risk by 40 percent, and those who drank six or more cups daily reduced their risk of developing gout by 59% when compared to men who didn't drink coffee.

Breast cancer

Coffee can either reduce the risk of developing breast cancer or delay its onset, according to Swedish studies. They found that coffee alters a woman's metabolism and produces a safer balance of estrogens. Women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day reduced their cancer risk by as much as two-thirds, depending on the specific type of breast cancer.

Diabetes-D

Enjoying six or more cups of coffee daily can cut chances of Type 2 diabetes by 54% in men and 30% in women over those who don't drink coffee.

Parkinson's disease

Several studies show that drinking coffee lowers a man's risk of developing Parkinson's up to 80 percent - and the more the better.

Colon cancer

A Japanese report found that women who drank three or more cups of coffee every day slashed their risk of developing colon cancer in half.

What's responsible for coffee's healthy benefits? Most researchers believe it's the antioxidants (polyphenols or flavonoids) in coffee, but there are hundreds of compounds in coffee that may be partially responsible.

Kopi-O Kosong ~ Bottoms up! Cheers...

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On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 8:33 AM, Tai Onn Lau wrote:

Dear All,

Just forward herewith the following info to share with you and I'm not sure whether this is factual or just another junk mail (only Great Sifu Dr JB Lim can tell). But I do notice the word "American Coffee Association", and like a Chinese saying that goes, those who sell flowers must praise the flowers fragrant.

Thank you.

T.O.

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The reply from the Great Sifu:
.
Monday, 12 March, 2012 1:10 AM
From: lim juboo

To Dear Ir. Lau and all concerned,

Thanks for requesting my professional opinion.

Yes, it is true that coffee contains a lot of phytochemicals, antioxidants, phenols, 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid, 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid, 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid (neochlorogenic acid), 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 3,4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 4,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid among other derivatives...to name a few.

This includes natural bronchodilator drugs like the metabolic derivatives of caffeine, aminophylline and theophylline.

Yes, in pharmacology this is true, and coffee extract do find their application in the practice of natural clinical medicine.

Unfortunately most of these therapeutic principles are destroyed by the heat of roasting the coffee beans at over 600 degrees Celsius. Hence their bio-availability is destroyed by heat. In short, these principles can no longer exert their purported medicinal and pharmacological dynamics (as claimed in the article).

The kinetics of most of these principles have a half-life (t 50) of about 6 hours, and a peak blood levels (t max) of about 60-80 minutes after ingestion. Their exertion is mainly through renal clearance.

I am sorry to dash all your therapeutic hope on coffee drinking, as stated in the article sent to me, unless you want to extract and isolate these medicinal principles and substrate with an alcohol-water based solvent, and accelerate freeze dry them in vacuum.

This manufacturing process will retain most of its pharmaceutical chemistry with a significant value in clinical applications.

Comment by:

Lim ju boo

BSc (Chemistry, Physiology with Pharmacology & Biochemistry), Post-Grad Dip Nutrition, MSc(Food Quality Assurance)