Coffee - Drink To Your Health?
In two recent unrelated studies, researchers have found that aside from giving your that boost of energy you need to start the day, your daily cuppa coffee may have added health benefits that were previously unknown.
In a study by researchers at India???s Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), it was discovered that coffee may shield the body from radiation. The study found that mice which were injected with caffeine survived exposure to what was normally lethal doses of radiation. Although the study was limited only to animals and not humans, researchers say coffee could work as a shield the same way for humans.
However, British radiation expert Peter O’Neill, of the Medical Research Council’s Radiation and Stability Unit in Oxfordshire claims it would take huge amounts of coffee to protect human cells from radiation. Researchers said the caffeine reacts with hydroxyl radicals which are produced by the radiation, and this could stop the radicals from damaging cells and help prevent the body’s functions from failing.
In other news, a 22-year study shows that drinking as little as one cup of coffee per day can help protect from liver disease caused by alcohol. The study conducted by researchers at the Kasier Permanente, in Oakland, California, found that drinking one cup of coffee per day means you are 20% less likely to have alcoholic cirrhosis than those who drink none. The protective effects increase with an increased coffee consumption: you are 40% less likely to contract cirrhosis if you drink two to three cups of coffee per day, and by drinking four or more you are 80% less likely to suffer from the disease.
Blood tests conducted during the study showed that participants who drank coffee daily were less likely to have high levels of enzymes in the liver - a key indicator of liver damage. The study claims that drinking tea had no effect, suggesting that the protective ingredient is not caffeine.
