If you love coffee, Dr Rosemary Stanton has some good news. Studies now show that there are many benefits from drinking coffee. Coffee can perk you up, make you more alert, improve your reaction times, help with some types of memory tests and increase your ability on some spatial tests. There are also lots of studies showing that a few cups of coffee a day have no adverse effects on bone density.
All these tests show coffee has its major effects as you get older. In fact, a recent study in older people found that drinking coffee was associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease (some follow up studies are needed to confirm this finding). However, Rosemary warned against giving kids coffee, because with their smaller body size it’s likely to make them jittery and sleepless.
The bad news
The news is not all good. Too much coffee is responsible for about a quarter of the tremors, palpitations, headaches and insomnia that people report to their doctors, and caffeine in coffee or tea can also increase blood pressure.
Moderation the key
If you’re extra sensitive to caffeine, stick to one cup and have it before lunch. Caffeine reaches its peak concentration in the blood within an hour, and slowly disappears over the next 3-6 hours. If you have any alcohol at the same time, caffeine takes much longer to leave the body. If you have high blood pressure or for any reason you can only have one coffee a day, make sure it’s good coffee. With coffee, moderation is the key, and drinking one or two cups a day is probably one of life’s less dangerous pursuits.
Further information
We filmed our segment at:
Toby’s Estate, 129 Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo, NSW.
Phone: (02) 9358 1196
Web: www.tobysestate.com.au