Joseph Sarandos
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DANG! If smoking don't get me, coffee might!
I've said before that I've been a pack-a-day smoker of non-filtered cigarettes since joining the Navy in January of 1955. I might have also mentioned that I've downed at least one pot of coffee every day since the same time.
Alright, so I've reached the age of 68 in good health and strength, and I don't encouarage anybody to take up smoking because of the "cancer gene" factor, but this latest "horror story" about coffee is not about to cause me to give it up. But here it is:
Posted on Wed, Mar. 08, 2006
Study on coffee's cardiac risk is a puzzle
By Denise Gellene and Jia-Rui Chong
Los Angeles Times
The findings of a new medical study may be enough to make you spit out your morning coffee.
And that could be a good thing -- at least for half of you.
A study of 4,000 coffee drinkers has found that two or more cups each day can increase the risk of heart disease -- but only for those with a genetic mutation that slows the breakdown of caffeine in the body.
In diverse urban areas, the mutation is found in roughly half of all people. People without the mutation can drink as much coffee as they like with no added risk of a heart attack, the scientists said.
Unfortunately, there is no commercial test for the mutation, which now puts coffee die-hards in a bit of a quandary.
The findings, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, could explain why previous investigations into caffeine's effect on the heart have produced conflicting results. Some reports have tied coffee to an increase in heart disease, while others have found no effect.
Ahmed El-Sohemy, a University of Toronto scientist involved in the study, said earlier reports failed to account for the genetic differences among people.
``One size does not fit all,'' he said.
People who metabolized caffeine slowly and drank two to three cups of coffee each day had a 32 percent higher risk of heart attack, according to the study. Those consuming four cups or more had a 64 percent greater risk.
A single cup of coffee had no effect on heart attack risk, researchers found.
Coffee drinkers in the United States -- about half of all adults -- gulp an average of three cups of coffee daily and spend more than $17 billion a year keeping themselves caffeinated.
The findings are ``interesting, plausible and worthy of further study,'' said Dr. David Robertson, a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University.
But he said consumers should not worry about changing their coffee-drinking habits. [?]
The research, which involved scientists from the United States and Costa Rica, compared 2,014 men and women in Costa Rica who had recovered from a first heart attack to an equal number of healthy adults. Genetic tests determined whether participants had the gene for breaking caffeine down slowly.
Source:
San Jose Mercury News
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3/8/2006, 12:25 pm
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wolflady
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Re: DANG! If smoking don't get me, coffee might!
Well I am 63 and smoke 2 packs a day and drink the first pot of high test trucker strength coffee before the rest of the house gets out of bed. I am still here and will not give up either habit. I enjoy both. I also eat eggs and bacon for breakfast every morning. I use real butter since I am an old farm girl.
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3/9/2006, 9:09 pm
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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: DANG! If smoking don't get me, coffee might!
quote:
wolflady wrote:
Well I am 63 and smoke 2 packs a day and drink the first pot of high test trucker strength coffee before the rest of the house gets out of bed. I am still here and will not give up either habit. I enjoy both. I also eat eggs and bacon for breakfast every morning. I use real butter since I am an old farm girl.
You're a gal after my own heart, Nanc!
Reduced-nicotene cigarettes, reduced-caffiene coffee and soft drinks, reduced-fat butter substitutes, reduced-cholesterol egg subsitutes, Turkey-meat bacon and ham, and other such "reduced-something" products, amount to getting less taste and enjoyment, while paying more money for the "privilege". But, the health problems continue to increase and multiply in all age-groups of the general population! There's something wr ong with this picture. 
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3/10/2006, 12:26 pm
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wolflady
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Re: DANG! If smoking don't get me, coffee might!
How you doin you old fart. I'm B ck.
Nanc
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11/3/2006, 3:54 am
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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: DANG! If smoking don't get me, coffee might!
Well Hi there, Nanc!
I'm fine healthwise (without changing my atrocious eating and smoking preferences), and I assume it's the same with you.
You probably deserve a lecture for not often posting here, but, as you can see, I've been more than a bit derelict myself. In my case, real life has been keeping me (along with my computer) very busy and preoccupied, and most of my available online time has been eaten up by E-mail correspondences (including CPS-related matters).
I'm surprised but pleased that the average readership hasn't fallen drastically, which is probably due to both old and new topics being referenced and linked via the E-mail rings.
If you can spare the time now, I hope to see more of your posts especially in the Victimized Children/Families forum.
This properly belongs in the "Feedback" forum, but lots of the visitors also read the most recent entries in all forums while they're here.
Give my best to Lynn and the other active Children/Families advocates.
Joe
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11/4/2006, 10:08 am
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