If you are a career woman like me you probably rely on coffee to get you through the day. In the past several studies pointed to the health risks associated with regular coffee consumption so drinking coffee felt like a guilty pleasure. Well, that's no longer the case according to a recent study drinking coffee can actually reduce the risk of stroke in women. This is great news for women everywhere since so many of us indulge in this wonderful drink daily. This is also great news for Starbucks and other coffee shops since they will likely see an increase in the number of women in their stores, which raises the question of who financed this study in the first place because the results are suspiciously in their favor.
When choosing between tea and coffee, you better opt for the latter. Regular intake of this drink has a favorable effect on women's health. In fact, coffee lowers the chance of having stroke and serves as a good preventative method against diabetes and cirrhosis. All this is very encouraging but shoult be taken with a grain of salt since coffee consumption is not without its risks as well.
During the course of Swedish Mammography Cohort research study of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, 2467 female participants have been monitored for 10 years. The object of this study, launched in 1997, is assessing the relationships between modifiable factors of human life, such as diet, vitamin supplement use, physical activity, smoking, alcohol intake, body weight, and the occurrence of several major chronic diseases.
At the start of the study, the participants, aged 49 to 83 years, did not have any symptoms of cardiovascular diseases. Over the 10 year span, 1680 women have had a stroke. After introducing controlling risk factors, such as excess body weight, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, and alcohol intake, the analysis results have shown that coffee intake is actually decreasing the risk of this condition.
In particular, according to the research data, those who drank at least one cup of coffee a day had a 22-25% lowered risk of stroke than those who drank less. Whereas drinking little or no coffee was associated with an increase in risk of stroke.
"Some women have avoided consuming coffee because they have thought it is unhealthy," said Susanna Larsson, the leader of the study. "In fact, increasing evidence indicates that moderate coffee consumption may decrease the risk of some diseases such as diabetes, liver cancer and possibly stroke."
However, the research results are still preliminary and should not drastically affect people's coffee-drinking habits. The good news, on the other hand, is that coffee consumption does not increase the chances of stroke in women. Any preventative measure should be moderate; otherwise, it may bring harm instead of health. One or two cups may be enough.