Consuming just two cups of coffee per day could have an negative impact on men's bladder control, American researchers have found.
A study by the University of Alabama concluded that caffeine consumption equivalent to approximately two cups of coffee per day (250mg) positively correlated with higher levels of urinary incontinence in US men.
After examining national survey results about the food and drink consumption of 5,000 men over the age of 20, the researchers noted that individuals whose intake tipped the 234 mg per day mark were "significantly associated" with having moderate to severe incontinence.
What's In Your Cup?
- 1 mug of instant coffee: 100mg
- 1 mug of filter coffee: 140mg
- 1 mug of tea: 75mg
- 1 can of cola: 40mg
- 1 can of energy drink: up to 80mg
- 1 50g bar of plain chocolate: up to 50mg
- 1 50g bar of milk chocolate: up to 25mg
Government guidelines recommend that pregnant women take in no more than 200mg limit of caffeine.
However, it's not all bad. Read on to find out how caffeine can also benefit your health...
... Well, maybe. A study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease suggests that there's something in coffee - though researchers have yet to determine what exactly that "something" is - interacts with caffeine to boost the levels of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF), a growth factor that seems to be able to fight off Alzheimer's disease in mice. The amount of coffee needed in the study is equivalent to about four or five cups of coffee for humans. Researchers said GCSF likely has this effect because it causes stem cells in the bone marrow to come into the brain and remove the beta-amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. It also has a role in forming brain cell connections and creating new brain neurons, researchers said.
Women who drink a few cups of caffeinated coffee have a lower risk of depression than women who don't drink any coffee, according to a Harvard study. That research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows that women who drink two to three cups of coffee a day have a 15 percent lower risk, while women who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a 20 percent lower risk. Study research Dr. Albert Ascherio told HuffPost earlier that "caffeine is known to affect the brain," because it "modulates the release of mood transmitters." "I'm not saying we're on the path to discovering a new way to prevent depression," he said. "But I think you can be reassured that if you are drinking coffee, it is coming out as a positive thing."
A Harvard School of Public Health study shows that men who drink six cups of coffee a day have a 60% decreased chance of developing a dangerous form of prostate cancer, as well as a 20% decreased chance of developing any other kinds of prostate cancer. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also shows that just drinking just some coffee a day - just one to three cups - could still cut prostate cancer risk by 30%.
Drinking a few cups of coffee a day could lower the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by as much as 25%, according to a study published last year in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. In that review of studies, which was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, researchers examined 26 studies that involved 125,000 British people, to find that two or three cups of coffee seemed to have the optimal effect, The Telegraph reported.
New research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference shows that coffee could help to ward off basal cell carcinoma, the most common cancer in the world. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that women who drink three or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day have a 20% lower risk of the skin cancer, while men had a 9% lower risk. Decaf coffee didn't seem to have the same protective effect -- so "our study shows that the inverse association with BCC appears due to caffeine, not other components in the coffee consumption," study researcher Fengju Song, Ph.D., earlier told HuffPost.
Drinking coffee is associated with a lower Type 2 diabetes risk, with more coffee consumption linked to a greater decrease in risk, according to an Archives of Internal Medicine review of studies from 2009. In that review, researchers looked at data from more than 450,000 people in 18 studies, and found that for every extra cup of coffee drank a day, a person's risk of Type 2 diabetes decreased by 7%. However, researchers cautioned that "the putative protective effects of these beverages warrant further investigation in randomized trials."
The caffeine in coffee could actually help you to spot grammar errors, according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Researchers found that caffeine helped students to correct errors in subject-verb agreement and verb tense, MSNBC reported. However, the caffeine still didn't seem to make a difference at identifying misspelled words - sorry.
The benefits of coffee