Caffeine May Counter Age-Related Inflammation, Says Study (stanford.edu) 99
According to a new Stanford study published in the journal Nature Medicine, caffeine may help to counter the inflammatory process that occurs in some older people. The researchers have found a connection between advancing age, systemic inflammation, cardiovascular disease and coffee consumption by analyzing blood samples, survey data and medical and family histories obtained from more than 100 human participants in a multiyear study. Stanford Medical Center Report adds: The study implicates this inflammatory process as a driver of cardiovascular disease and increased rates of mortality overall. Metabolites, or breakdown products, of nucleic acids -- the molecules that serve as building blocks for our genes -- circulating in the blood can trigger this inflammatory process, the study found. The study also provides evidence that caffeine and its own metabolites may counter the action of these circulating nucleic-acid metabolites, possibly explaining why coffee drinkers tend to live longer than abstainers. Notably, this inflammatory mechanism was found to be activated only in some, but not all, of the older study participants. Those in whom it was relatively quiescent tended to drink more caffeinated beverages. Laboratory experiments revealed that the mechanism was directly countered by caffeine and associated compounds. For the new study, the researchers compared blood drawn from older versus younger study participants to see which genes tended to be more highly activated in older people. They zeroed in on two clusters of genes whose activity was associated with the production of a potent circulating inflammatory protein called IL-1-beta. The genes within each cluster appeared to work in coordination with one another. The researchers found that incubating a type of immune cell with two of those nucleic-acid metabolites boosted activity in one of the gene clusters, resulting in increased IL-1-beta production. When injected into mice, the substances triggered massive systemic inflammation, along with high blood pressure. In addition, immune cells infiltrated and clogged the animals' kidneys, increasing renal pressure substantially. Intrigued by the correlation between older participants' health, gene-cluster activation and self-reported rates of caffeine consumption, the researchers followed up and verified that blood from the group with low cluster activity was enriched for caffeine and a number of its metabolites, compared with blood from the group with high cluster activity. (Examples of these metabolites are theophylline, also found in tea, and theobromine, which abounds in chocolate.) Incubating immune cells with caffeine and its breakdown products along with the inflammation-triggering nucleic acid metabolites substantially prevented the latter from exerting their powerful inflammatory effect on the cells.
IT is amazing (Score:2)
What a coincidence this was broadcast in the news earlier on today too.
Someone must be paying $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Re:IT is amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
How frequently we hear studies how certain lucrative industries, like one where there is a margin of 700%-2000% in the product, "it is amazing for your health". What a coincidence this was broadcast in the news earlier on today too. Someone must be paying $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Laziness and impatience drives obscene profit margins within the coffee industry. It's still fairly easy to still spend pennies on a cup of coffee, if you're willing to get off your ass, grind a few beans, and brew a cup. Most people prefer whistling for a dog named Starbucks or shove a pod into a machine to whip up a coffee-like substance fast enough to not be a burden on a FOMO lifestyle.
Re:IT is amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
Gay anal sex makes you live longer as well... (Score:2, Funny)
Giver: prostate is flushed
Receiver: prostate is massaged
End effect: toxins are removed from prostate
Not kidding. Not a troll.
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You could switch to pure espresso shots.
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the sugary, cream-laden concoctions that pass for coffee at Fivebucks
It's actually possible to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks. I do it once in a while, when no better alternative presents itself. Just try ordering a "medium black coffee". The employees understand English if you speak clearly.
I admit it's not very good coffee, given Starbucks' propensity for using an excessively dark roast and then burning the coffee anyway, but I've had worse.
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In our locale, the no frills-no sugar-no cream-regular black blend of liquid concentration is Pike's Place. It is downright caliginous, and, more often than you would suspect for a specialty coffee retailer, often left on the heat way too long.
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I am the ultimate in lazy. All my coffee is free at work...
One cup in the morning with a bit of non-dairy creamer... my FOMO lifestyle is in force!
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Free work coffee is the only way we do our jobs here.
That and cheap breakfast tacos in the cafeteria are the only reasons I show up at a reasonable hour.
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Laziness and impatience drives obscene profit margins within the coffee industry. It's still fairly easy to still spend pennies on a cup of coffee, if you're willing to get off your ass, grind a few beans, and brew a cup. Most people prefer whistling for a dog named Starbucks or shove a pod into a machine to whip up a coffee-like substance fast enough to not be a burden on a FOMO lifestyle.
Quit being such judgmental snob. I do all three; it depends on the situation I'm in, and nothing to do with FOMO. There are times when I want a coffee and I'm not at home or not at work: Starbucks or Biggby [biggby.com], usually with a triple shot of espresso. When I'm at work, I use my Keurig. I find certain K-cups [keurig.com] make great coffee. When we're camping we grind our own and use a percolator over coals. Definitely the roughest cups of coffee I drink, but then again, I'm out in the woods.
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What a coincidence. I think I sprayed eight dollars worth of Peet's while reading this comment.
Re:IT is amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:IT is amazing (Score:5, Funny)
Ha. To fooey with your own roasting! I hand forge axes from native iron filings patiently gathered by local native tribesman from old railroad ties. I use the axe to cut down first growth Yellow Cedar, strip the bark to make kindling, split the wood (I do use a match, gotta account for modern technology somehow), roast the beans on hot granite rocks and grind them with river stones.
I did go out to WalMart to get a French Press because the natives around here just had to interact with Russians and they were more into vodka than coffee.....
The stuff is just wonderful. Except I'm too sore and tired to do anything else.
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I grow my own coffee shrub.
Sure - who doesn't? - but if you're just using any old dirt to grow it in, you're missing out. I only drink coffee made from plants I grow in my carefully designed soil blend, on my private mountain.
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It's still fairly easy to still spend pennies on a cup of coffee, if you're willing to get off your ass
I save a bunch while being lazy. I make cold brew at home. I spend about as much time as I would on a single pot of coffee, but it makes concentrate that lasts a couple of weeks. As usual Walmart has good prices if you are ok with the brands they carry.
Also for sweetening cold coffee drinks, making simple sugar is dirt cheap and easy and can last a while too.
All said, with milk and sugar, I average around 75 cents per 16oz glass. Compare that with around $4 for the same at Starbucks.
(I've worked at a co
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For anyone who is into cold brewed coffee, lives in the bay area and is too lazy to make it themselves:
http://cosmiccoffeeclub.com/ [cosmiccoffeeclub.com]
I truly find their stuff amazing...and quite economical.
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Japanese can coffee is quite enjoyable and super convenient - push a button and scan a contactless EDY or transit card, and you have your beverage for about $1 and in less than 5 seconds. That said, I can see why it didn't take off here. People are like "hot beverage in a metal can, won't that hurt your hand?" herp-derp and then proceed to burn their hand on the paper cup they just waited 5 minutes for, because putting said paper cup into the cardboard sleeve is not in the $15/hr Starbucks employee's job
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Laziness and impatience drives obscene profit margins within the coffee industry. It's still fairly easy to still spend pennies on a cup of coffee, if you're willing to get off your ass, grind a few beans, and brew a cup. Most people prefer whistling for a dog named Starbucks or shove a pod into a machine to whip up a coffee-like substance fast enough to not be a burden on a FOMO lifestyle.
I make Folgers Coffee from a drip coffee machine. My morning brain fuel.
I don't need those fancy cup pod coffee makers or that fancy Starfucks that costs more than a can of Folgers. Young'uns are so noob to the joys of coffee. Back in my day I had to go to an actual store and get a can of coffee and then actually make the coffee.
Now get the Hell off my lawn!
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Laziness and impatience drives obscene profit margins within the coffee industry. It's still fairly easy to still spend pennies on a cup of coffee, if you're willing to get off your ass, grind a few beans, and brew a cup......... Starbucks or shove a pod into a machine to whip up a coffee-like substance.
Couldn't agree more, if they bothered not only would they get it cheaper but also better. Starbucks and pods are both average coffee for way above average price, the beans are sometimes good at the start but have spoiled in treatment: cheap air dry process like a lot of African can collect a lot of crap (literally) and often not processed properly and can go off, wet process tends to be better but can also be done wrong. The off flavours are often due to this cheap processing bacterial/mould issue rather t
Re:IT is amazing (Score:5, Funny)
Perthaps, although coffee is only one source of caffeine.
Coffee is one of the most researched drinks on the planet though, partially because it is drunk so much. Another reason is because back in the 80's everyone assumed it must be bad for you and started a bunch of studies to prove how it is bad for "X,Y, and Z". As it turns out, everything they thought it would cause it ended up helping. Coffee really does have a lot of benefits (and some down sides). Diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's disease... turns out it can help a lot of things.
If only Superman drank coffee he might have become immune to kryptonite*.
* untested theory
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If only Superman drank coffee he might have become immune to kryptonite*.
Superman has already moved on from caffeine. [smbc-comics.com]
nice (Score:5, Funny)
That means I AM IMMORTAL!
All hail the dew.
Why are you shaking like that?
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Re:nice (Score:5, Funny)
No problemo. Except for the 'moderation' part, I'm there.
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Re:This story sponsored by (Score:5, Informative)
You know, this kind of shallow cynicism actually makes you easier to dupe, because it's not evidence-based; it's what-sounds-truthy-based.
This article was published in Nature, which requires a complete disclosure of institutional affiliations and financial conflicts. That doesn't mean the system is perfect, but it's about as good as it gets, especially given that Nature is one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. Nature Medicine has an eye-popping 30.357 impact factor, making it the fourth most highly cited medical journal in the world after the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and Journal of the American Medical Association.
Does it mean you should immediately believe anything that's published in Nature Medicine? No. You should wait until it is cited in a literature review article in one of those top journals before making any health decisions based on it. However as individual papers go, this is as credible as they get.
Researchers have been trying to take caffeine down for decades. Nobody can quite believe that something so enjoyable as coffee isn't bad for you. In fact doctors used to routinely warn their patients off coffee because of all the bad things it would do to them, but in fact when researchers tried to confirm all the things doctors knew about why coffee was bad for you, none of them turned out to be true, with narrow exceptions for certain populations (e.g., coffee doesn't cause ulcers as we used to be told, but if you have an ulcer coffee will make the symptoms worse).
What researchers found were surprising benefits, including what appears to be evidence of reduction in risks for multiple forms of cancer and even a reduction in suicide risk.
Coffee is well on its way to becoming the first evidence-backed superfood.
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These studies weren't that wrong. For people obsessed with meat, gout is a very real danger.
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These studies weren't that wrong. For people obsessed with meat, gout is a very real danger.
And there are a lot of things that are good for you but if you consume too much it will at least cause damage (for example vitamin C enhances iron absorption. If you have high-iron stores, consuming an excessive amounts of vitamin C will cause your body to absorb too much iron, which can damage organs.) But recent evidence proves that those pro-carb, anti-fat studies in the 50's are very misleading to say the least. Go to this site http://www.cerealkillersmovie.... [cerealkillersmovie.com] to find out more.
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Actually evidence from the 1950s was mixed -- as it still is -- but in fact most of it stands up pretty well. What's a problem is the interpretation of that evidence and its limited nature (e.g. not knowing about different types of cholesterol).
For example it was established in the 50s that high blood cholesterol was a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This is still believed as true, but what they didn't know at the time is what factors affected blood cholesterol. It was (plausibly although not conc
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Researchers have been trying to take caffeine down for decades. Nobody can quite believe that something so enjoyable as coffee isn't bad for you. In fact doctors used to routinely warn their patients off coffee because of all the bad things it would do to them, but in fact when researchers tried to confirm all the things doctors knew about why coffee was bad for you, none of them turned out to be true, with narrow exceptions for certain populations (e.g., coffee doesn't cause ulcers as we used to be told, but if you have an ulcer coffee will make the symptoms worse).
What researchers found were surprising benefits, including what appears to be evidence of reduction in risks for multiple forms of cancer and even a reduction in suicide risk.
Coffee is well on its way to becoming the first evidence-backed superfood.
FWIW, I'm in one such population: Even relatively low levels of caffeine (or other stimulants) can trigger anxiety attacks. 6oz of Coke will keep me up 18 hours later. Which sucks in our high-stress world. I have to use a small number of squares of (good) dark chocolate to keep the dosage manageable.
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Well, the answer might be to try a morning cup of decaf coffee. Why? Because caffeine isn't the only active ingredient in coffee; the anti-cancer properties of coffee appear to be in the phenols which are still present in decaf. And you'd still get the stimulant benefits of caffeine because you're more sensitive, although I'd avoid even decaf after noon.
A cup of decaf coffee has between 2-10 mg of caffeine depending on the process; an ounce of dark chocolate has about 20 mg of caffeine; a twelve once cok
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Well, the answer might be to try a morning cup of decaf coffee. Why? Because caffeine isn't the only active ingredient in coffee; the anti-cancer properties of coffee appear to be in the phenols which are still present in decaf. And you'd still get the stimulant benefits of caffeine because you're more sensitive, although I'd avoid even decaf after noon.
A cup of decaf coffee has between 2-10 mg of caffeine depending on the process; an ounce of dark chocolate has about 20 mg of caffeine; a twelve once coke has 34 mg of caffeine; a cup of regular coffee has 90-200 mg of caffeine.
Thanks - I was wondering about the non-caffeine ingredients. My dark chocolate intake is about .75oz/day (and I can definitely feel it) Maybe I'll try a cup of decaf on a weekend morning some time.
I'm also concerned about who defines "decaf" - especially here in Seattle, the capital of caffeine abuse ;-)
...Or Just Take Aspirin. (Score:5, Insightful)
Low dose aspitin is commonly recommended for those at risk of heart problems. It is an anti-inflamitory, anti-coagulant and arguably even cheaper than caffiene.
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It hasn't.
http://www.aspirin.com/en/abou... [aspirin.com]
"The active ingredient in Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid."
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I didn't say "the active ingredient in aspirin is caffeine", I said " aspirin typically contains caffeine". You see, drugs interact with each other, and mixing a drug with another can increase the effectiveness of another drug. It's why mixing drugs can be dangerous. Mixing can cause you to overdose on an amount of a drug that normally would be safe. Caffeine is one of these drugs that is often be used to increase the effectiveness of another drug. And guess what, acetylsalicylic acid is one of the dru
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You're talking about 'Excedrin'. Which, classically, has been a mix of aspirin and caffeine. Seemed to help with migraine headaches. Then they added acetaminophen.
Of course, if you're Canadian you can wander into 2-2-2 [wikipedia.org]'s (aspirin, caffeine and codeine. Oh, Canada.
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It still doesn't typically contain caffeine.
There are combination pills, but they are neither aspirin nor typical. And as for migraine, apparently you think that every headache is migraine. It isn't, and isn't even the most common type of headache (that would be tension headache). Using pills that are meant to combat migraine for tension headache would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. This is why most ASA pills don't contain caffeine - people tend to abuse this kind of pills because caffeine mak
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Excedrin and other APC preparations have only one benefit over plain aspirin swallowed with coffee: for some people, there is a beneficial placebo effect with certain brand names. More power to them.
However to some extent the placebo effect is dependent on ignorance that you have been given a placebo, so if you used to find that Excedrin worked better than aspirin with coffee, I may have just destroyed that benefit for you. Too bad. Find another sugar pill.
Acetaminophen (paracetamol, Tyelnol) is no more e
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Re:...Or Just Take Aspirin. (Score:4, Informative)
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Yeah, aspirin's tendency to make people bleed easier is often considered a problem by the military.
Re: ...Or Just Take Aspirin. (Score:1)
I knew it as APC ... The P stands for phenacetin [wikipedia.org], a paracetamol precursor
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Long term non-steroidal anti-inflammatory ("NSAID") use causes stomach and intestinal ulcers.
I'm talking from experience.
Your body runs on hormones. Medicines have side effects because when you block a hormone responsible for multiple things (as they almost always are), you shut off ALL of those activities. Blocking the hormone that is responsible for inflammation, additionally shuts down it's other useful effects. It 1. Shuts down the generation of a protective layer for your stomach lining/intestines. 2.
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Let's not forget the effect of helicobacter pylori bacteria on ulcers, they are in general held to be the main cause these days.
I have another theory about the beneficial effect of aspirin, caffine, etc. We evolved with them. Our diet was rich in salycilates and chemicals similar to theobromine or caffine. They came from the plants we ate, some of which were mildly toxic and which we evolved to process to the point that we became dependent on some of their effects. There are a lot of things in the primitive
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"Low dose aspitin is commonly recommended for those at risk of heart problems. It is an anti-inflamitory, anti-coagulant and arguably even cheaper than caffiene."
It doesn't have to be coffee, I take 2 pills of 200 mg pure caffeine before my morning workout, so that I don't have to drink several cups of coffee and spend my workout on the toilet.
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Bah. Only barbarians take store-bought aspirin. If you're not making your own from your carefully selected and cultivated willow trees, you're...
Sorry. The coffee thread was played out.
The Four Slashdot Food Groups. . . (Score:5, Funny)
Caffiene, Nicotine, Preservatives, and Raw White Sugar. . . . powering Hackers since 1967. . .
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Silly Anonymous Coward, Pizza is a VITAMIN!!!
Caffeine is one of the drugs the most used (Score:2)
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But what about studying the effects of chicory for instance, or fresh lemon juice, or almond milk...?
Walnuts are great for reducing blood cholesterol levels. But . . . large pharmaceutical companies can't patent walnuts, so they have no incentive to fund studies with walnuts. Well, maybe Monsanto or that creepy Shkreli monstrosity might find a way to patent walnuts.
Any, if munching on walnuts is not your thing try drinking them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Straight up, or on the rocks . . .
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Nut or gland derived milk is not my thing.
I do, however, enjoy an ice cold cup of unsweetened soy drink. Over cereal is great too.
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WhAt DoWnSiDe, PriCk!
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Tea.
Green tea.
Re: Mediterranean diet (Score:2, Funny)
Strange, you seem so laid back
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Maybe it works also with decaffeinated coffee.
Disclaimer (Score:3)
Disclaimer:
No Stanford University students were funded by any corporations or industry conglomerates that are tied in any way to the selling of caffeinated products, we may say, in connection to manipulation of data in any of studies for their own gain. Maybe.
I get my caffeine ... (Score:2)
... at a counter, so I'm low risk.
Average it (Score:1)
Over the years, I've seen at least a dozen coffee research papers come out with a wide mix of good & bad news.
I average it all and conclude coffee is officially "meh" in terms of health.
caffeine makes you pee sooo... (Score:1)
The Spice Must Flow (Score:2)
The bean of the coffee makes the thoughts quicken, the pulse increase;
The breath is a warning to others
For he is the Kwikii Mart Haderach!
Flamebait (Score:2)
Obviously caffeine does not reduce an inflammatory response.
Well, at least not on the Internet...