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Morning brew may reduce stroke risk in women
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In a recent issue of the medical journal Circulation, researchers reported that drinking coffee lowers the risk of stroke among women. Additionally, the study discovered that a woman's protection against stroke increases with the amount of coffee she drinks.
The study found that women who drank five to seven cups of coffee per week were 12 percent less likely to have a stroke than were those who limited their coffee consumption to just one cup per month. However, results differed between women that do and do not smoke. Among women who drank 4 or more cups a day, those that smoked had only a 3 percent reduction in stroke risk while women who never smoked, or who had quit smoking, showed a 43 percent reduced risk for having a stroke. For many years, medical research has known that smoking is the biggest risk factor in developing a heart attack or stroke and here is just one more reason to quit or to talk to your doctor about quitting.
The study analyzed data of more than 83,000 women who are part of the Nurses’ Health Study. The average age of the women in the study was 55 years of age and none of the women had a history of stroke, heart disease, diabetes or cancer.
While the exact mechanism for how and why coffee offers this protective benefit against stroke is still unknown, lead researchers of this study are quite confident that they can continue to advise women to savor their coffee and also lead a lifestyle that includes other stroke-reducing behaviors such as following a healthy diet, maintaining a regular exercise program, not smoking and watching sodium intake. In addition, researchers are convinced that it is something specific to coffee that confers the health benefits, as other caffeinated drinks, like tea and soda, showed no advantages.
This recent finding supports the growing evidence of the health benefits of drinking coffee. For instance, a previous research has demonstrated coffee’s protective advantage against Type II diabetes.
The Nurses’ Health Study is a long-term epidemiological study that is currently the most definitive study on women’s health. With funding from the National Institute of Health, the study has been collecting data on 121,700 registered nurses across the country since 1976 in order to assess risk factors for heart disease and cancer.
