99 Health Benefits Of Coffee – Part 3 of 11

1. Coffee might help you live longer

In case you worried if you already had too much coffee (and it’s only noon), well, have one more, on the house.

It’s OK.

The latest results of over 40 studies and nearly 4 millions participants, and over 400.000 causes of death, show that moderate coffee consumption, such as 2 – 4 cups a day is associated with reduced mortality in cases “irrespective of age, overweight status, alcohol drinking, smoking status, and caffeine content of coffee, compared to no coffee consumption”.

According to the study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, drinking coffee also reduces the risk of developing and dying from cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or respiratory diseases.

Via GIPHY

2. Coffee could help you protect your eyes

Drinking coffee could have positive benefits for your eye health.

Yup, you saw that right!

Raw coffee beans contain chlorogenic acid (CGA), an antioxidant that helps to reduce blood pressure and improve weight loss. CGA can help to protect the body from a condition called hypoxia, caused by a lack of oxygen.

Your retina is particularly vulnerable to hypoxia so drinking coffee could help to prevent any damage to your eyes and vision. Tests using CGA in its purest form have shown that it can prevent deterioration of the retina, but there is yet to be solid proof that drinking coffee can help with this.

Video Credit: Pearle Vision

3. Coffee could help reduce your weight

So you go ahead and have your morning coffee without worries.

A study from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham found that drinking a cup of coffee can stimulate ‘brown fat’, which burns calories to generate body heat.

Experts say people with a lower body mass index (BMI) tend to have a higher amount of brown fat, which is a different type of fat to ‘white fat’ – that one’s caused by consuming excess calories. Professor Michael Symonds, who co-directed the study, explains: ‘Brown fat works in a different way to other fat in your body and produces heat by burning sugar and fat, often in response to cold. ‘Increasing its activity improves blood sugar control as well as improving blood lipid levels and the extra calories burnt help with weight loss.‘

I’m no expert, but that has to be good, right?

However, adding sugar and dairy products in your milk, like sugar, creamers, milk, cream and similar, might interrupt this amazing benefit of coffee.

Video Credit: PictureFit

4. Coffee can soothe cracked feet

Photo Credit: Photo by Jasmin Schuler on Unsplash

Coffee is a natural exfoliant, it is rich in anti-oxidants, and hence, it heals and repairs skin efficiently. It helps the skin to feel and look fresh by making them soft and smooth.

The downside is, it’s not working by drinking it.

heck out this DIY Coffee Scrub to Fix Dry, Rough and Cracked Feet to try and see if it will have the same effect on you.

5. Coffee makes it easier to go to the bathroom

Well, you might not be the only one who runs in the bathroom immediately after your morning cup of joy.

In fact, one study found that 29% of participants needed to use the bathroom within twenty minutes of drinking a cup of coffee

Several studies have also shown that coffee stimulates the urge to poop by making the colon 60% more active than the water does.

Decaf coffee has the same properties, in the lower level though, making the colon 23% more active, which suggests that other compounds of the coffee, or factors are responsible.

6. Coffee can boost your mood

As a central nervous system stimulant, caffeine doesn’t just boost alertness, it can also improve your mood.

This is due to the same adenosine-blocking effect that makes you feel alert. By blocking adenosine’s relaxing effects, caffeine lets dopamine and glutamine (other natural stimulants produced by your brain) run wild, making you more alert, less bored, and providing a mood boost.

Interestingly, a number of studies have found a connection between caffeine consumption and a reduced risk of depression— especially when it’s consumed in the form of coffee. Research has even suggested caffeine lowers the risk of suicide, at least for men. However, only this study found connection with caffeinated coffee as a mood booster, and not tea, though others found the same effect for tea as well.

Via GIPHY

7. Coffee might lower the risk of multiple sclerosis

This is a serious claim, but there are studies and researches done to clear this up.

Using two population-representative case– control studies (a Swedish study comprising 1620 cases and 2788 controls, and a US study comprising 1159 cases and 1172 controls), the participants with different habits of coffee consumption were compared regarding the risk of multiple sclerosis.

Their conclusion is that high consumption of coffee may decrease the risk of developing MS. Caffeine, one component of coffee, has neuroprotective properties, and has been shown to suppress the production of proinflammatory cytokines, which may be mechanisms underlying the observed association.

Still, they say further studies need to be done for a final and clear thought on this subject.

8. Coffee can help those with asthma

Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, cola drinks and cocoa.

The caffeine is a stimulant very similar to theophylline. It helps reduce the swelling in your airways by increasing blood flow which carries oxygenated blood to your lungs and other organs.

The steam and heat of the coffee help in relieving the chest congestion, thus making you able to inhale more oxygen and expel more carbon dioxide from your lungs.

There are studies as well that did their research on this subject and their share is that caffeine appears to improve airways function modestly, for up to four hours, in people with asthma . People may need to avoid caffeine for at least four hours prior to lung function testing, as caffeine ingestion could cause misinterpretation of the results.

So, take a breath, take coffee!

9. Coffee can make you more sociable

As a well established social protocol, this is not far from the true.

I mean, this must be familiar with all, or most. of you: Hey, you wanna grab a cup of coffee ____________(fill in the blank)?

But there’s a scientific side of this.

In a recent study, researchers found that giving a group of people coffee before working on a group task led participants to evaluate the performance of their co-workers more positively.

The same held true in an experiment where some participants were given regular coffee and others decaf — those who got caffeine evaluated co-workers more highly and reported more positive feelings.

In both cases, people who consumed caffeine also evaluated their own performance in a more positive way.

The study was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.