A SIP OF GOOD NEWS, AT LEAST FOR COFFEE LOVERS

It's rare to find out that something you like is actually good for you. But today we can report that coffee really is. Here's the good news, freshly poured:

As part of a large multi-year study, researchers were able to compare coffee consumption and a variety of health outcomes for more than 185,000 people in California and Hawaii. As reported in the July 11, 2021 issue of the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine, over the course of the study coffee drinkers lived longer and suffered fewer cases of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, respiratory illness and kidney disease. 

Credit: stokpik/Pixabay

How large were these benefits? On the average people were followed for 16 years, starting at ages from 45 to 75. Over the course of the study 31 percent of the participants died, with cardiovascular disease and cancer being the biggest risks. People who drank one cup of coffee a day were 12 percent less likely to die during the study period than non-coffee-drinkers, and people who drank two or three cups per day were 18 percent less likely to die. 

So not only did coffee add years to people's lives, it also added years of good health.

Veronica Setiawan, an associate professor of preventative medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine, and the study's lead author, is impressed enough with these findings that she's suggesting that non-coffee-drinkers reconsider. "We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association," she says. "If you like to drink coffee, drink up! If you're not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start."

One of this study's strongest points is the rich ethnic mix of its participants. It enrolled large cohorts of African-Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese-Americans, Latinos and whites. It turned out that all of these groups showed comparable benefits from coffee consumption. "This study is the largest of its kind and includes minorities who have very different lifestyles," Setiawan says. "Seeing a similar pattern across different populations gives stronger biological backing to the argument that coffee is good for you whether you are white, African-American, Lationo or Asian."

An interesting wrinkle was the finding that it made no difference whether participants drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Instead, Setiawan suspects antioxidants and other chemicals in coffee provide the health benefits she found. "Coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play an important role in cancer prevention," she says.  "Although this study does not show causation or point to what chemicals in coffee may have this 'elixir effect,' it is clear that coffee can be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle."

As I finish off my third cup of Joe for the day, it's great to be able to report some news that put a smile on my face, and I suspect will do the same for many others as well.

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And, as a bonus, another large long-term study finds that, contrary to its reputation, coffee doesn't add to the risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias. In fact, each additional daily cup of coffee was associated with a 3 percent reduction in the incidence of arrhythmia.

However, there really can be too much of a good thing. Just-published research from Australia indicates that people who drink more than six cups of coffee a day are putting themselves at significantly higher risk of stroke and dementia. The devil, it seems, is in the dose.

HOW GOOD IS EXERCISE FOR SENIORS? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!

A new review of reviews of the benefits of exercise tells us that exercise is as close as we're likely to get to a panacea.

Seniors exercising

Credit: Asahia/Wikimedia Commons

Writing in the Scandanavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, an international team of researchers reviewed all of the highest quality reviews and meta-analyses to date on the relationship between exercise and health in people in their sixties or older. The smallest group studied comprised 855 individuals, while the largest study tracked more than 400,000. The results are impressive:

If you're 60 or more and physically active, compared to your less-active peers, you're:

     22 percent less likely to die from any cause during a comparable time period

     25 to 40 percent less likely die from cardiovascular disease

     12 percent less likely to develop breast or prostate cancer

     29 to 39 percent less likely to fracture a bone

     50 percent less likely to become disabled (unable to perform basic activities              of daily living)

     26 to 38 percent less likely to experience cognitive decline or impairment

     32 to 42 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's Disease

     14 to 21 percent less likely to develop some other kind of dementia

     17 to 21 percent less likely to suffer from depression

      and significantly more likely to experience healthy aging, a better
      quality of life and more years spent in good mental and physical health.

To some extent, the range of outcomes comes from different studies using different criteria. However, for most of these relationships, more exercise produced better outcomes. The researchers conclude that any amount of physical activity has some benefit, but recommend at least 75 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

"Physical activity plays a key role in the 'compression of morbidity,'" the authors write, "decreasing the time spent in ill-health as people age and ensuring that an increase in life expectancy is also an increase in life-time spent in good health."

Not a bad payoff for investing at 10 to 15 minutes a day exercising.

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CYCLING TO WORK CUTS CANCER AND HEART-DISEASE RISK NEARLY IN HALF

A five-year study of 260,000 men and women in the UK found that bicycling to work every day reduced their risk of dying by more than 40 percent compared to commuters who drove or used public transport. In addition, the risk of developing cancer fell by 45 percent, and of being diagnosed with heart disease by 46 percent.

"This is really clear evidence that people who commute in an active way, particularly by cycling, were at lower risk," says Jason Gill, a physician-researcher at the University of Glasgow and corresponding author of the study.

New Yorkers bicycling to work
Credit: Streetfilms

Walking to work had a similar but smaller protective effect, probably because people who used bicycles for their commute exercised longer and more intensely than walkers. 

The powerful protective effect of active rather than passive commuting held up even when the researchers controlled for known risk factors such as smoking, weight and diet.

One benefit of bicycling to work, the researchers point out, is that unlike going to the gym or planned workouts, commuting becomes a no-willpower-needed habit. "You need to get to work every day, so if you build cycling into the day it essentially takes willpower out of the equation," says Gill.

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You can read the original article, in BMJ, the British Medical Journal, here.

HERE'S TO "WEEKEND WARRIORS"--THE EXERCISE YOU GET IS LIFE-SAVING

We all know that exercise is good for us. Decades of research has shown that even moderate physical activity--such as brisk walking--improves health and lengthens lives.

Based on this, both the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend at least 2 1/2 hours of moderate physical activity or 1 1/4 hours of intense exercise per week, spread throughout the week.

Biking and other exercises add miles--and years--to your life/Credit Connie Ma

Recognizing that many people can't build daily exercise into their schedules, but might hit the streets, the courts or the trails on weekends, a team of British researchers set out to see if even "weekend warriors" are healthier because of the the exercise they do.

The short answer is--you bet they are.

Writing in this week's edition of the prestigious medical journal, JAMA Internal Medicine, Gary O'Donovan and his colleagues conclude that men and women who got the recommended amount of exercise in just one or two outings per week were 40 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, 30 percent less likely to die from any cause, and nearly 20 percent less likely to die of cancer, compared to inactive adults.

The health benefits for weekend warriors were similar to those for people who exercised the same amount, but more regularly during the week.

"The weekend warrior and other physical activity patterns characterized by 1 or 2 sessions per week of moderate or vigorous-intensity physical activity may be sufficient to reduce risks for all-cause, CVD [cardiovascular disease], and cancer mortality regardless of adherence to prevailing physical activity guidelines," the researchers write.

Their study tracked almost 64,000 men and women 40 years and older over the course of 8 years, as part of a long-term English-Scottish health survey. Exercise patterns were determined from self reports while causes of death came from death certificates. The study's findings are particularly useful because of its length and the large number of participants.

Here's the take-home message from O'Donovan:

If you already are a weekend warrior, keep up the good work. If you are thinking of becoming more active, begin with a moderate-intensity exercise like brisk walking. Walking is associated with low risk of injury and it's important to set realistic goals that provide motivation and build confidence. I would recommend that middle-aged and older adults take part in at least 12 weeks of moderate-intensity exercise before introducing any vigorous-intensity exercise.

A new study, published in the prestigious British Medical Journal, analyzed 39 separate studies and concluded that both aerobic and resistance exercise can improve cognitive functioning in people over the age of 50. The exercise can be moderate, yet the cognitive gains are significant.

The bottom line--get up, get out, and exercise, even if you can only manage it once or twice a week.

An Aspirin a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Baby Aspirin Reduces Cancer Risk

It's well documented that taking low doses of aspirin every day reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes. That's why millions of people worldwide are prescribed their daily baby aspirins.

A new analysis combining the results from eight long-term studies of the effects of low-dose aspirin now finds a significant reduction in deaths from a variety of cancers, most notably those of the digestive tract, but also cancer of the brain, lungs, prostate and pancreas.

Overall,taking low-dose aspirin for five years or more appeared to reduce the overall death rate from cancer by more than 20 percent.

You can read a summary of these findings on Suite101.

And, if you're interested, you can read the original paper in The Lancet.

Robert Adler