Ten Health Reasons to Enjoy Your Coffee

If you’re a coffee lover, you’ve had lots of good news in the past ten years or so. Next time someone tries to tell you that coffee will stunt your growth or keep you up at night, you can break out one of these studies and facts to counter it and get them off your back.

In May 2011, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health released the results of a major study on health problems that affect men. Among the findings: men who drink at least six cups of coffee a day were 60 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who drink no coffee. Men who drink at least six cups of coffee a day were also 60 percent less likely to develop the most fatal type of prostate cancer.

Coffee drinkers are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who don’t drink coffee. In nine studies involving more than 193,000 people, those who said they drank more than six or seven cups of coffee daily were 35% less likely than people who drank fewer than two cups of coffee every day. People who drank four to six cups of coffee daily were 28% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

In a Kaiser Permanent health study, people who drank at least one to three cups of coffee a day were 20% less likely to end up in the hospital for abnormal heart rhythms, or arrhythmias. That held true no matter what other risk factors were or were not present.

Women who drink at least one to two cups of coffee a day are 20 percent less likely to suffer from a stroke, according to the results of the Nurses’ Health Study. That was true even when the women had other health conditions that increase the risk of stroke.

People who drink more coffee are less likely to have Parkinson’s disease, according to WebMd. In this particular case, the protective factor appears to be caffeine, though no one is quite sure why or how it works.

People who drink three to five cups of coffee a day are a whopping 65 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, according to a 2009 study in Finland and Sweden. The study followed 1,400 people for 20 years to come to the conclusion.

The data on cancer is less consistent than the data on diabetes 2, but there seems to be a clear correlation between more coffee consumption and reduced risk of liver cancer and liver cirrhosis.

In a study of healthy people age 65 and over, doctors found that those who drank four or more cups of coffee a day had a 53 percent lower chance of developing heart disease than those who drank no coffee at all.

Coffee reduces the incidence of gallstones and kidney stones. A 1999 study found that men who drank any form of coffee on a regular basis had a decreased risk of gallstones and kidney stones. A 2002 study confirmed the same effects for women.

Coffee increases alertness and stamina. In multiple studies, researchers have found that the consumption of coffee helps people pay attention and improves performance on tasks that require concentration and attention.