Coffee drinking not linked to Chronic Illnesses

Numerous studies of coffee’s links to myriad diseases have provided head-spinning results, but a new paper finds java drinkers have no more risk of illnesses such as heart disease or cancer. In fact, they are less likely to end up with type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease that does not require insulin and is linked to obesity. “We do not encourage people to start drinking coffee if they do not enjoy this, but the overall evidence on coffee and health suggests that there is no reason for persons without specific health conditions to reduce their coffee consumption in order to reduce their risk of chronic diseases,” said Rob van Dam, a professor at National University of Singapore, who was not involved in this study. In some cases, coffee drinking has been tied to an increase in heart disease, cancer, stroke and more. In other cases, coffee drinking appears benign or even linked to better outcomes. “There have been conflicting results from previous studies regarding coffee’s effect on chronic disease risk depending on the type of disease,” said Anna Floegel, the lead author of the study and an epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke. “That is why we decided to look at different diseases at the same time to estimate the overall health effect of coffee consumption.” The researchers, who published their findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, collected information at the beginning of the study on coffee drinking habits, diet, exercise and health from more than 42,000 German adults without any chronic conditions. For the next nine years, the team followed up on the participants every two or three years to see whether they developed any health problems. (QNA) QNA 1054 GMT 2012/03/03