3 to 5 cups of coffee a day may be good for health

Addicted to coffee? Well, though doctors warn that too much of the drink can harm your system, a new review has found that 3 to 5 cups a day may be good for health.

Washington, May 1 : Addicted to coffee? Well, though doctors warn that too much of the drink can harm your system, a new review has found that 3 to 5 cups a day may be good for health.

The review was conducted a panel of boffins chaired by Dr. James Coughlin, a toxicology/safety consultant at Coughlin and Associates.

Researchers reviewing studies on coffee found that the preponderance of scientific evidence suggests that moderate coffee consumption may be associated with reduced risk of certain disease conditions, such as Parkinson's disease.

Some research in neuropharamacology suggests that one cup of coffee can halve the risk of Parkinson's disease.

Other studies have found it reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease, kidney stones, gallstones, depression and even suicide.

Dr. Rob van Dam, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School, studied the link between diet and the development of type 2 diabetes.

On the basis of recent epidemiological studies in the U.S., Europe and Japan, he noted that persons who were heavy coffee consumers had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than persons who consumed little coffee.

Interestingly associations were similar for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, suggesting that coffee components other than caffeine may be beneficial for glucose metabolism.

Coffee contains hundreds of components including substantial amounts of chlorogenic acid, caffeine, magnesium, potassium, vitamin B3, trigonelline, and lignans.

Limited evidence suggests that coffee may improve glucose metabolism by reducing the rate of intestinal glucose absorption and by stimulating the secretion of the gut hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is beneficial for the secretion of insulin.

However, most mechanistic research on coffee and glucose metabolism has been done in animals and in lab tubes and therefore metabolic studies in humans are currently being conducted. Further research may lead to the development or selection of coffee types with improved health effects.

ANI