Caffeine in Coffee Prevents Breast Cancer among Postmenopausal Women

New research indicates that the caffeine in coffee decreases the likelihood that postmenopausal women will develop breast cancer.  Previous research has established that the caffeine in coffee fends off type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, gallstones, Parkinson’s disease, and liver cancer and may also offer protection against skin cancer. A study published in the journal Breast Cancer […]

Oh, no! The Paranoid Caffeine Horror Parade Moves on!

An amazingly stupid and inaccurate book, Caffeine Makes Me Bleed (And How It Can Poison You, Too!) by Susan Lynn, has been added to the list of literature promoting the irrational fear and hatred of caffeine. Caffeine Makes Me Bleed As our web site postings make clear, caffeine not only offers safe, effective performance and mood […]

Caffeine Makes Brain Cells Grow!

In 1999, Menahem Segal and Eduard Korkotian of the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel reported an astonishing discovery.  They had removed hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for long term memory) from rat embryos and kept the cells alive, cultured on microscope slides.  The researchers then applied caffeine to the hippocampal […]

Caffeine in Coffee Fights Aging

Antioxidants have long been touted as anti-aging agents that work to prevent the damage caused by prolonged exposure to free radicals.  The theory is that by soaking up or neutralizing free radicals, antioxidants enable us to live longer, healthier lives.  Most people know that vitamin C is a strong antioxidant.  What most people don’t know is that […]

Surprised? Caffeine DOES NOT Increase Blood Pressure — PERIOD!

A major metastudy, reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which followed more than 170,000 people over a period of 30 years, has definitively demonstrated that caffeine does not increase blood pressure.  Many doctors and kibbitzers from the Dark Side have been attacking caffeine for many years, spreading the myth that caffeine increases blood […]

Yerkes-Dodson Effect: How Much Coffee or Caffeine is Too Much?

One of the reasons that caffeine is not a drug of abuse is that, unlike cocaine, amphetamine, or heroin, caffeine does not produce effects that indefinitely increase as you increase the dose.  Caffeine has a built in mechanism that guarantees that a little does a little, more does more, but even more starts to reverse the beneficial effects […]

Caffeine Content: Coffee and Tea

Unfortunately, the caffeine content of coffee and tea is almost never reported on a label or a sign in a coffee shop or anywhere else.  This table will give you a fighting chance at estimating how much caffeine you are getting from some of your favorite drinks. Preparation Method Mg of Caffeine COFFEE (6 oz […]

Caffeine Boosts Muscle Rebound after Exercise

Caffeine improves performance in almost every athletic activity, including, for example, sprinting, long distance running and swimming, weight lifting, and archery.  It is important to recognize, however, that caffeine also helps muscles recover more quickly after a major workout or competition.  Eating carbohydrates is one way of enabling muscles to recover glycogen, their primary fuel.  When glycogen is […]

Caffeine Reduces Uterine Cancer Risk

Uterine, or endometrial, cancer is the most common cancer afflicting women’s reproductive organs.  In the United States in 2009, according to the American Cancer Society, over 40,000 new cases of uterine cancer were diagnosed and the disease caused nearly 8,000 deaths.  A 2010 Mayo Clinic study of over 20,000 postmenopauseal women, conducted by Dr. Stefano Uccella, […]

Caffeine Reduces Skin Cancer Risk — and Exercise Helps!

In the past few years, a number of studies, including several conducted at Rutgers University by Dr. Allan H. Conney, director of Rutgers University’s Cullman Laboratory, have strongly indicated that caffeine, whether ingested or applied topically, can reduce the risk of developing skin cancer. However, one 2007 study conducted by Conney and reported in the Proceedings of […]