Coffee and Tea Are Both Good for You

Good news for the coffee and tea drinkers. There are reports that both may help prevent stroke. In the March issue of Circulation an article will appear describing an analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study that examines the role of coffee in the occurrence of stroke.

Recent studies have shown that coffee drinking doesn’t increase the risk of coronary heart disease or type 2 diabetes. In this study, a group of 83,000 women were enrolled in 1980; they were free of stroke, coronary heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. In 2004 (24 years later) coffee consumption was examined in relation to the occurrence of stroke. In women who didn’t smoke - and that’s important – long-term intake of 4 or more cups of coffee a day was linked to almost a halving (actually 57%) risk of having a stroke. Smokers had an unchanged risk (97%).

The second study of interest appeared in the journal Stroke. UCLA scientists analyzed 9 published studies involving 195,000 people, in whom 4375 strokes occurred. They found that subjects who drank 3 or more cups of tea a day had a 21% lower risk of having a stroke than those drinking less than one cup a day. (The tea could be green or black.)

So, all praise to the morning coffee break and the tea-time pause. Women everywhere can benefit from a cup of joe or char, without worrying that it’s doing them harm. Of course, the cookies and cake are another matter!