Oh, yeah, how you can live longer, too: Drink More Coffee. I found this via Althouse, bless her little cheese head.
I've had a rough week. This is like the best news ever. I live a pretty pathetic life, and the only thing I really get to enjoy most of the time is coffee.
You can read the article, but one of the things I known since I was a kid about coffee is that it is a painkiller. I was running a fever from the flu a couple of day ago and took the first over-the-counter pain reliever -- an ibuprofen -- I've had in probably two or three years. If I get a headache or I have muscle soreness, I drink coffee.
Caffeine might also function as a pain reliever. A study from September suggested as much when its authors stumbled across caffeinated coffee as a possible confounding variable in its study of the back, neck, and shoulder pains plaguing office drones: Those who reported drinking coffee before the experiment experienced less intense pain.And it helps with existential angst and depression:
The data is even more intriguing -- and more convincing -- for caffeine's effects as a salve against more existential pains. While a small study this month found that concentrated amounts of caffeine can increase positivity in the moment, last September the nurses' cohort demonstrated a neat reduction in depression rates among women that became stronger with increased consumption of caffeinated coffee.
Without coffee, what reason is there to live? I don't see how non-coffee drinkers do it. I'm baffled.
Got to go. I have a pot to polish off! Woo-hoo!
If we were to rank substance addictions then Coffee is probably one of the safest. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about the human condition that seems predisposed to chemical dependence? (I come from a long line of Irish ancestors).
It's a good question. My family name is Scottish, and my maternal grandfather's people had problems with firewater as well.
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a social aspect to some consumption, almost like communion. Have a drink together and all that. Most of my coffee is consumed alone, though. It's my thinking habit, something I sort of put on so I'm not "doing nothing".
And you're right about the safety. I've never had a situation where I couldn't find my way home because I had too much coffee.
ReplyDeleteI'm a reluctant addict. I can't stand the stuff but I like the drug.
ReplyDeleteHad a funny discussion with my Mother in Law at our Thanksgiving visit. She drinks decaf because she likes the taste and I was telling her I drink caffinated for the drug but hate the taste. I guess I didn't start early enough. Had my first cup when I was in my 40s.
I was probably 6.
ReplyDeleteDecaf tastes like cigarette butts were put out in it.
I like the taste and the buzz. And I understand people that don't like coffee because the average cup of coffee is bitter. Kona or Blue Mountain, if you grind good, fresh beans, is like nectar.
But any coffee almost -- except "custom roast" which is what they sweep up off the floor -- is better the stronger you make it.