For all the coffee lovers...

You are not alone… this survey shows that doctors and nurses “depend on coffee to get through the workday” much more than other professionals (I think I could’ve predicted that one!).

Sure we might be addicted, but the recent good news is that we also might be helping our inflammation and cholesterol levels.

This study followed healthy subjects for 3 months:

• The first month: subjects had 0 cups of coffee/day
• The second month: subjects had 4 cups of coffee/day
• The third month: subjects had 8 cups of coffee/day 

I like the design of this study because individual subjects serve as their own controls, helping control for confounders (like diet, exercise, or smoking which may be associated with coffee consumption), and making it easier to see the effects of coffee alone.

They compared markers of inflammation, oxidative stress, cholesterol, glucose, and insulin resistance. They found increased coffee consumption to be associated with:

• A decrease in markers of inflammation IL-18 and 8-isoprostane (no change in C-reactive protein or IL-6)
• An increase in adiponectin, a hormone involved in regulating metabolism and glucose levels (no change in fasting glucose or insulin)
• An increase in HDL cholesterol (the good kind of cholesterol) 

Their conclusion: “Coffee consumption appears to have beneficial effects on subclinical inflammation and HDL cholesterol.”

I’d love to see a similar study design looking at these markers after a month of a daily yoga practice!

And how much do you love these mugs?! I want one!!