Can Coffee Decrease Risk of Cancer?

Need another reason to down that Cup o’ Joe?

Despite conflicting research over the past few years, a large study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that drinking coffee could reduce a woman’s chance of developing certain types of cancer later in life.

Researchers looked at 67,000 women between the ages of 34 and 59 and noted their coffee habits and occurrence of cancer. Women who drank 4+ cups of coffee a day had a 25% lower risk of developing endometrial cancer than women who had 2-3 cups per day. (Those who drank 2-3 cups per day still had a 7% decreased risk of cancer as compared to non-coffee drinkers)

Coffee (both caffeinated and decaf) has known beneficial compounds that have been shown to reduce estrogen and insulin levels. But, perhaps inevitably, the study illustrates that coffee cannot overpower health issues, such as obesity or tobacco dependence, that increase the risk of cancer.

I remain skeptical about the Harvard study because it seems particularly difficult to keep all factors identical when comparing coffee drinkers with non-coffee drinkers. It seems unlikely that this was a truly controlled study. Most likely, java junkies tended to drink fewer unhealthy, sugary soft drinks and therefore reduced their risk of cancer by replacing a comparatively poorer health choice with coffee .

Coffee beans are a valuable source of antioxidants and have numerous benefits (cognitive performance, analgesic enhancement, etc) however, it is important to remember that the effect of coffee is simply correlated with decreased cancer risk and, for the time being, is not a direct causation.

The Apple/Pear Debate is Reignited!

If you’ve been told for years that your pudgy mid-section is putting your heart at risk, you may want to hear the findings of a new study by UK researchers from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Although the “pear shape” (which refers to fat distribution predominantly around the hip and thigh area) has long been touted as the healthier form, that is no longer the general consensus.

Prior beliefs seemed to rest on the idea that visceral fat surrounding the organs was more likely to have detrimental effects on the body’s systems as a whole when compared to fat located around the hips and rear. One attention-getting survey claimed that those with high levels of abdominal fat (sporting the “beer-belly” look) were three times more likely to suffer from heart disease than those with an identical amount of fat located below the waist. The emerging evidence however, suggests that apple-figures do not suffer from this significantly increased risk, as previously thought.

Interestingly enough, this data comes on the heels of a study suggesting a new definition of “normal” blood pressure. Like the apple shape, blood pressure readings greater than 120/80 mm/Hg are no longer being condemned as unhealthy or necessarily at-risk. A study published by The Journal of General Internal Medicine found that people who fell into the “pre-hypertension category” were not any more likely to die prematurely than those with lower blood pressures.

Clearly there are conflicting ideas at play, both in terms of blood pressure standards and body composition factors. In the end, it is important to look at these individual measurements within the grand scheme of overall biometrics to get the full picture of an individual’s health.