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REAL LIFE NEWS: SEE, I TOLD YOU COFFEE WAS GOOD FOR YOU!

by Hazed

I love the smell of freshly-brewed coffee. But I think it tastes disgusting so I never touch the stuff. Shame, because new research suggests it can ward off depression.

A team from the Harvard Medical School tracked the health, and the coffee consumption, of more than 50,000 female nurses in the US, over a decade from 1996 to 2006. During this period, just over 2,600 of the women developed depression.

More of the depressed women turned out to be non-coffee drinkers, or to only drink a small amount, rather than the frequent coffee drinkers. When compared with women who drank one cup of caffeinated coffee per week or less, those who consumed two to three cups per day had a 15% decreased risk of developing depressions. Those whose consumption was four or more cups a day cut their risk by 20%.

The researcher are not sure why coffee wards off depression, but they believe caffeine may alter the brain's chemistry.

Interesting - that means even though I don't drink coffee, my consumption of large quantities of diet coke could see me benefitting anyway.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15059266

Footnote: for a comment on the robustness of this study, and how further research could be undertaken without the expense of a major project, see this fascinating article on how ordinary people can run their own scientific trials: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/30/run-your-own-scientific-trials.

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