I admit to a strong pro-coffee bias, and I think that if coffee had just been invented, it might be a medication, or at least a health food of some sort. Writing in today's Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University report on their 10-year study, in which they followed more than 50,000 women who did not have clinical depression when the study started. They examined their coffee consumption during that time to see if there was any correlation with new-onset depression. This isn't a cause-and-effect demonstration, but it's interesting that there seemed to be a dose-response relationship between the amount of coffee women drank daily and the risk of depression: the more coffee, the lower the risk. The effect was pretty modest, with about a 20% decreased risk in women who drank at least 4 cups a day (yes, that would include me) compared to women who drank no more than 1 cup of caffeinated coffee each week. Decaf was not associated with depression in any way. Click here to read the study summary. This is not the first time that coffee has been associated with a mental health benefit of this type. A recent study suggested that coffee may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease in women, but not men. A study from Finland, where they drink lots of coffee and have fairly high depression rates suggested the possibility that men who drink the most coffee have the lowest depression risk. Of course, if you let coffee ruin your sleep, you may not get depressed, but you will be exhausted. If it just doesn't agree with you, don't push it. And maybe depressed people just don't want to drink coffee...
Have a cup of coffee?
One cup of coffee is enough to keep me focused and awake at work. And when I am more awake and energized, I feel a sudden rush of happiness inside.
Posted by: Carolin Newmeyer | February 13, 2012 at 06:27 PM