All things in moderation....?

[sleepyjeff]

http://health.msn.com/centers/cardio...42823&GT1=8452

This latest finding will most likely keep the coffee debate percolating among health experts. ......Baylin and her colleagues from Harvard's School of Public Health looked at 503 nonfatal heart attack cases that occurred between 1994 and 1998 in Costa Rica. Their study, expected to be published in the September issue of Epidemiology, found light (one cup daily) and moderate (two to three cups daily) coffee consumption was linked to a higher incidence of first, nonfatal heart attacks when compared with heavy (four cups or more daily) coffee consumption. Most people in the study reported drinking two to three cups of coffee per day.

"We don't know, but think it may be caffeine, because that is the active component in coffee that we know increases sympathetic nerve activity, which raises blood pressure," Baylin speculated.

She stressed the study focused only on the short-term effects of coffee; the researchers only looked at the first hour after coffee was consumed. "The acute effect of coffee as a trigger for heart attack is modified by habitual consumption. People who drink it regularly are still at risk. Only heavy drinkers are not at risk," she said.

I knew the "all things in moderation" slogan was bogus

[Tramspotter]

Sure a MI destroys smooth heart mussle cells but only the weak ones!

Now where's the study that says drinking coffee helps mitigate the damage alchohol does on the liver?

I'll drink to that one

[Gemini Cricket]

What happens to those of us that don't drink coffee? One cup and death?!

[Alex]

Probably, but I suspect it would be induced by the vile taste. Not the presence of caffeine.

The press is notoriously horrible about summarizing medical studies and I would expect this to be the case here. I'd be interested to know if they filtered out other sources of caffeine, many people drink soda in quantities much larger than they would coffee. Also, since they were only studying short term effects how common the large consumption was. How many people drink four or more cups of coffee in an hour?

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

the vile taste

Yep. Bleckk!

[sleepyjeff]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Probably, but I suspect it would be induced by the vile taste. Not the presence of caffeine.

I'd have to agree. The only way I can drink coffee is with lots and lots of milk....and I don't even really like milk.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

My best friend lives in Seattle, center of the coffee universe, and he says coffee doesn't taste so bad if you mix in enough milk. To which I reply, "Then just give me milk!"

[Kevy Baby]

I like to take my excesses in moderation.

Would that be considered moderately excessive or excessively moderate?

[Alex]

The former.

I lived in Seattle and didn't drink coffee. It was lonely.

[Not Afraid]

I drink about 2 cups a day and I don't dink any other source of caffine throughout the day (with the exception of an occasional iced tea or chocolate). My Mom died of a massiveheart attack. I'm doomed anyways.