Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and Bob Marley all have crooned songs about coffee – as cups of love with lots of flavor. We sing its praises because daily consumption makes your real age younger by keeping your blood vessels flexible and lowering your stroke risk by 30 percent.
It also cuts the risk of early death by 18 percent in women and 3 percent in men. Plus: Three cups a day may help you dodge some cancers, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes.
And now a recent study found that residents of the Greek island of Icaria, where they have the longest lifespan in the world, owe their longevity in part to the boiled Greek coffee they drink every day.
If you want those good effects from your morning joe, remember, when it comes to coffee/caffeine, there’s no one-cup-fits-all recommendation. Some folks say that drinking several cups makes them sleepy! Others complain of the shakes from just one cup (harmless, but disconcerting). And a caffeine overdose can trigger everything from heart palpitations to insomnia, migraines, vomiting and diarrhea.
A few years ago, more than 40 seagulls in Canada died after snacking on used coffee grinds in a restaurant’s garbage. But for most healthy adults, two to three cups of brewed coffee a day deliver the benefits of caffeine (brain focus, muscle endurance and reduced inflammation).
The brew also contains heart-loving antioxidants and phenols – they’re in decaf, too. There are few risks beyond yellow teeth and bad breath. So grab your toothbrush – and opa!
– Dr. Michael Roizen & Dr. Mehmet Oz
© 2013 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
