Does Coffee Consumption Lower the Risk of Prostate Cancer?

A follow-up study by the Harvard School of Public Health Researchers has found that drinking coffee is linked to the reduction of prostate cancer.

, published in the May 17 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, followed 47,911 men and found that those that drank 6 or more cups of coffee a day were 20% less likely to develop prostate cancer for over two decades than those that didn’t drink any.

Not only that, but these heavy coffee drinkers were also found to be 60% less likely to develop a lethal form of prostate cancer. Even those who drank less coffee had benefits: they were still 30% less likely to acquire the lethal version of the disease.

style="color: #ff0000;">BUT THAT’S TOO MUCH CAFFEINE!

Yeah, I know. That’s the obvious initial reaction to all this. The long-term effects of putting so much caffeine in your bloodstream balances out, or might even greatly outweigh the benefit of reducing the risk of prostate cancer, so why even bother?

Here’s the beauty of all this, though: the study reveals that style="color: #0000ff;">it didn’t matter if the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated for it to lower the risk of prostate cancer.

style="color: #ff0000;">THE BENEFITS OF DRINKING COFFEE

So if the caffeine has nothing to do with this benefit, then it must be something else in the coffee, right? Coffee contains compounds that have been shown to act as antioxidants, reduce inflammation, and regulate insulin. Coffee has also been linked in previous studies to lower the risk of Parkinson’s disease, type-2 diabetes, gallstone disease, liver cancer, and cirrhosis of the liver.

style="color: #ff0000;">SO, SHOULD I DRINK MORE FROM NOW ON?

So, does this and other studies basically tell us that drinking more than one cup of joe throughout the day means a healthier, longer life? After all, the benefits seem to be linked to the other compounds found in the drink, and not the caffeine, so we can sidestep all those nasty side effects.

The study’s lead author, Kathryn M. Wilson that “we’re not telling men to drink more coffee, but there’s mounting evidence that if they do, they don’t have to worry about it.”

Well, there you go. If you have some sort of concern with prostate cancer or any of the other diseases mentioned here, then you may want to consider drinking more coffee. Studies show that it can help you out, and you can even drink just decaf!

style="text-align: left;">style="color: #000000;">SOURCES:

• AllHeadlineNews