In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

Visions link to coffee intake

(BBC) A University of Durham study has concluded that drinking more than seven cups of instant coffee a day is three times more likely to result in hallucinations such as hearing voices and "sensing the presence of dead people." The study, led by Simon Jones, a Ph.D. psychology student and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council, questioned 200 students about their caffeine intake. The researchers say this is not the same as saying that there is a casual link between coffee and hallucinations since about three per cent of people regularly hallucinate.  Jones says this is only one part of the overall investigation into hallucinations and that other dietary factors such as sugar and fat consumption will be examined next.     

1.

Study: coffee may trigger heart attack

CBS news
Coffee can trigger heart attacks in individuals already at risk by causing a temporary increase in blood pressure and nervous activity in the body, according to a September 2006 article in the journal Epidemiology. The interesting aspect of this study is that the group considered most at risk was not heavy coffee drinkers. Moderate drinkers (two to three cups a day) were 60 per cent more likely to have a heart attack and light coffee drinkers increased their risk by four times. The study surveyed 503 nonfatal heart attack participants in Costa Rica about their coffee consumption hours and days prior to their heart attack. Ana Baylin of Brown University's School of Medicine said in a news release that "people at high risk for a heart attack who are occasional or regular coffee drinkers might consider quitting coffee altogether."

2.

Daily caffeine 'protects brain'

BBC
A 2008 study by researchers at the University of North Dakota published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation said that coffee may cut the risk of dementia caused by Alzheimer's Disease by blocking the harmful effects of cholesterol in the blood. In the study, rabbits were given a "fat-rich" diet. Rabbits that were also given a caffeine supplement (equivalent to one cup of coffee) were less likely to damage the so-called "blood-brain barrier," a filter that protects the central nervous system from harmful chemicals carried in the bloodstream. It is believed that high levels of cholesterol can make this barrier less effective protecting the brain.

3.

Drinking coffee 'can double miscarriage risk'

Telegraph.co.uk
Pregnant women were being asked to quit drinking coffee altogether after a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology argued that pregnant women who drink at least two cups of coffee a day are twice as likely to be at risk for miscarriages. This conflicted with British guidelines that held that four cups of instant coffee was safe. The two-year study examined 1,063 pregnancies in San Francisco. The study was not limited to coffee but covered other caffeine products, such as pop and chocolate.  Since foetuses have an under-developed metabolic system, caffeine is believed to contribute to poor cell development and foetal growth.

4.

Cancer chemical found in coffee

The Sunday Times
In 2006, The Sunday Times reported that research from two United Nations agencies, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, using data from 17 countries concluded that a chemical found in coffee, acrylamide, increases the risk of cancer from three to 39 per cent. The amount of acrylamide in coffee depends on how strong the coffee is and how long the beans have been roasted. Acrylamide is also found in food produced from high temperature cooking such as frying and roasting.

5.

Acrylamide Doesn't Raise Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk

US News and World Report
The November 2008 issue of The Journal of Nutrition concluded that there was no link between dietary acrylamide and one type of cancer, gastrointestinal cancern. Studies have shown that there may be a link between acrylamide and other forms of cancer, such as cancer of the uterus, ovaries and kidneys. But there is no association for breast, bladder and prostate cancer, said Janneke Hogervorst, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Dr. Michael Thun, vice president of epidemiology and surveillance research with the American Cancer Society, said that even though acrylamide is present in coffee, there hasn't been any clear indications that coffee consumption increases or decreases the risk of cancer.