BREW HA HA!

Dear Friend,

Ok ...I gotta tell ya ..and I've been saying it for YEARS ...COFFEE IS GOOD FOR YOU!

Oh, there's always those people (you know..."those") who will tell you it's BAD...and will worry about it's acidity, or worry that it will eat through your intestines, or worry that the caffeine will make your head explode... Of course, worriers will worry about everything because that is the particular dis-ease pattern they are stuck in. So EVERYTHING becomes a source of worry ...even sunlight.

So who says that it's good for you? Big-shot researchers at HARVARD, that's who!

A study in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine, published out of the Harvard School of Public Health, examines the relationship between coffee and mortality. It is based on the coffee drinking habits of 41,736 men and 86,216 women with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer. The men were followed for 18 years, the women for 24 years.

Just so you know, it is the largest and most long-term study of its kind ever done.

The study shows that 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.

And I quote: "Our results suggest that long-term, regular coffee consumption has several beneficial health effects," says Esther Lopez-Garcia, lead author of the Harvard School of Public Health report. In fact the report states that women who drank two to three cups of coffee a day had a 25% lower risk of dying from heart disease than non-drinkers. Statistically, that is a HUGE difference!!!

Other studies throughout the years have also shown that there are beneficial effects of regular coffee consumption. For instance, in 2000, researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that coffee intake was linked with decreased rates of Parkinson's disease. In 2004, Harvard researchers reported that it significantly reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. And a 2005 study found that coffee could help prevent the most common type of liver cancer, according to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Some of the research I've read has suggested that the key to coffee's health benefits is its powerful antioxidants. And I remember that Deepak Chopra even mentions in his book "Quantum Healing" that coffee drinkers live longer than non-coffee drinkers.

Here's one of the most interesting findings in the new study: Even participants who drank decaf had lower death rates than non-drinkers ...same as those who drank caffeinated coffee. Clearly, these findings suggest that a component other than caffeine is responsible the relationship between coffee and a lower risk of death. (www.annals.org/)

What could that special "something" be? You know what? I really don't want to know. I know I can trust my instincts on this....

I remember my very first coffee. Sure I'd had sips of it from time to time, but it never impressed me. Until ...camping with my Dad, my Uncle John, my brother and my cousin Jack. It was a fishing trip in the wilds of a Connecticut campground, and I was about 12 years old. We were in a tent, an old-school job that smelled of musty waxed canvas that allowed all the morning dew to settle onto you so you woke up a little bit damper than you would want.

What I remember most is the coffee AROMA ...it literally went up my nose and touched a part of my brain that had evidently been designed for just this smell. It drew me out of the tent into the just breaking morning light. There, over a crackling fire, my Uncle John was brewing coffee in one of those dinged-up, rustic, grayish-blue speckled tin and porcelain pots that I imagined cowboys use.

Huddled in an old army-blanket that smelled like beach-sand, he handed me a cup that matched the pot ...simple, low, and round, with a small loop handle. It was hot and steaming and it felt wonderful in my cold hands. I could not inhale it's magic deeply enough.

Then I sipped it...what an experience! This caramel-colored mix of coffee, hot milk and sugar (I was only 12) just intoxicated me beyond what I could have imagined. "So THIS is what it's all about!" I remember thinking as I held the steaming cup under my nose and, looking through the stream, took in the chirping birds and the emerging sunlight turning the beautiful, damp morning dew into a million jewels.

Like I said...I don't need to know. Everything about this magic beverage is in that moment. Or in a bustling cafe, pungent with the aroma of fresh coffee beans meeting their maker in the whir of a grinder ..the baristas scurrying behind the counter ...the satisfaction of that first sip of the hot brew, people in groups talking, reading alone, staring at a laptop screen, or standing in line waiting for their order to go...the wonderful oh-so-human culture of the coffee shop tells it all, if we just listen...

....and it’s good for the HEART!!!!!!!

As always I welcome your comments, feedback, and a Medium Dolce-Bean Rice-Milk Latte from Urth Caffee, 88 steps north from LWC :)

Your Mildly Caffeinated, Heart-Friendly Bean for Your Health,

Dr Lou

Lifetime Wellness Chiropractic
333 S Beverly Dr suite 216, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
310-282-7100 www.drlou.org drfabale@gmail.com