Another day, another coffee health benefits study

The media gains new obsessions every day: whether it's Tiger Woods, young people and social networking or the future of the news business itself. But perhaps no media obsession has been as enduring as its longtime debate over whether coffee is actually harmful or beneficial - or some combination of the two - to human health. With every month comes another study, report or finding that is breathlessly relayed by newspapers and Web sites. The latest was conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., and has found that "moderate coffee drinking actually reduces the risk of being hospitalized for heart rhythm problems," according to Web MD.

Though one researcher, Dr. Arthur L. Klatsky, said that a single study isn't enough to prove a cause-effect relationship; the survey did indicate, after observing data from 130,000 patients, of 3,137 people who had a hospital discharge diagnosis of cardiac dysrhythmia, "those who drank the most coffee, four cups or more a day, had the biggest reduction in risk of being hospitalized for a heart rhythm problem."

Take a look at some of the other health parsing that's been done recently over coffee:

From the New York Times:

"Coffee and tea drinkers are less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than nondrinkers, with those drinking three to four cups a day at a 25 percent lower risk for the disease than those who drink less than two cups, a large analysis has found. It does not matter whether the drinks are caffeinated or not, said the study, published in The Archives of Internal Medicine."

From Science News:

"People who drink coffee are nearly one-third less likely than nondrinkers to develop a stroke, a new study suggests. It didn't matter if the brew was drip grind, decaffeinated or even lowly instant.

Epidemiologist Yangmei Li of the University of Cambridge in England and her colleagues analyzed the health records of more than 20,000 European men and women between the ages of 39 and 79 who were free of stroke history, heart disease and cancer when they provided lifestyle information for a health study in the mid-1990s."

From USA Today:

"Drinking up to six cups of coffee a day may lower the overall odds of dying prematurely, mainly because it cuts the risk of dying from heart disease, a study released today suggests. But the study found that heavy coffee drinking doesn't cut your chance of dying from cancer."

The list could go on and on. It stands to reason that by continually publishing news on the benefits of drinking coffee, journalists are perhaps - even unconsciously - just trying to validate their own habits. Trust me, writers and editors down a lot of coffee. I believe I referred to the stuff recently on Twitter as "life juice." But like any substance, it carries health benefits and health risks, and one need only look in any newspaper to learn about all of them.

Photo credit: MarkSweep