I fight nasty withdrawal symptoms like severe headache, fatigue, and rheumatic pains right now after not drinking coffee for two days. It feels like a really bad flu. From experience I know that this will be better very soon.<p>That is the reason why I want to give up coffee completely. I don't want to be addicted to a substance. I don't like to get headache or feel tired only because I choose to not drink coffee for a day. Maybe there will be a day when I can not get a coffee.<p>I don't drink that much coffee. A pot of coffee in the morning and usually 2 - 3 espressos during the day. I guess I am sensitive to it.
I'm skeptical that it is sound to just throw out smokers and make a claim about coffee health benefits.<p>By taking people that use a lot of one common addictive substance (caffeine) and none of another (nicotine) they might just be selecting people with low potential for addiction/high will power. I believe those kinds of people might have lower mortality rates for reasons other than coffee consumption.
These studies that equate lower mortality with good for you ( that is always the implication ) are quite harmful I think. When people say "I just read something that says coffee is good for you again" that's where the harm is done. This says only that you may die a little later in life, the question of whether it is good for you is alltogether separate. Now it may be that things that make you live longer are generally good for you in the comprehensive sense, but there are better ways to measure that.
Fascinating study, and the journal article is free online[0]. It's an observational study, but of a single occupation and large N, with many other factors accounted for[1]. My take is that coffee, like other psychoactive substances, contains powerful chemicals that are likely to have <i>some</i> effect on total mortality. I will stick to my two cups a day.<p>[0] <a href="http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2015/11/10/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.017341.abstract" rel="nofollow">http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2015/11/10/CIRCULA...</a><p>[1] <i>The regression models included calendar time in 2-y intervals as the time scale, and were stratified by age in years. In the multivariable analysis, we further adjusted for body mass index (BMI), physical activity, overall dietary
pattern (aHEI), total energy intake, smoking status, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and alcohol consumption, all of which were updated from follow-up questionnaires.</i>
As much as I love coffee and I'm happy to hear that drinking it is actually healthy, I think I'm just personally too sensitive to caffeine for it to be beneficial overall. My baseline stress level goes way up even with one cup a day and I have a much harder time falling and staying asleep.<p>For some reason tea doesn't affect me as much.
I drank a moderate amount of coffee but it gave me heartburn both the acid and the caffeine caused my GERD to be bad so I cut back and switched to decaf now my GERD is 99% gone.<p>But I may quit since it's decaffeinated using methylene chloride which doesn't look very gut friendly or maybe I just discovered a cure for GERD.
Now my brain is confused.<p>It says, drink lot of coffee but what about caffeine addiction?<p>Also, should I filter the coffee as it increases LDL cholestrol? Some even say cholestrol is not that bad.<p>Also, is 5-9% better mortality rate worth considering?<p>What about other stuff people with better mortality consumed? Did you know the effects of those substances on mortality?
As stated in the article, we can't be certain of causation. I tend to prefer a simpler approach.<p>The simple act of moving lowers the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.<p>5 cups of coffee per day is going to get most people moving.