Skip to main content

Much can happen with coffee!

The buck-you-up cup that gets us going in the morning has indeed survived intense scientific scrutiny for 20 years regarding its health safety, and has emerged largely unscathed with, in fact, some benefits to claim instead. A recent study showed that moderate coffee drinkers were less likely to develop liver cirrhosis, degenarative brain disorders, and heart disease.
Scientists, still groping for a cause of the enigmatic Alzheimer’s disease, a degenrative condition of the brain that wipes off its victim’s memory and higher mental functions, were surprised to find that those who drank 3-5 cups of the brew a day had a lower chance of having the disease. A similar “protection” was also seen from another degerative condition of the nerves and brain, called Parkinson ’s disease.
Coffee, a drink made from brewing beans of the coffeacute plant, contains several chemical compounds that affect the human system. Apart from caffeine, the main constituent that provides its stimulant effect, it contains a wide range of other substances, anti-oxidants and minerals such as zinc, selenium and copper.
Coffee is widely believed to have originated in the Arabian Peninsula where its use can be traced to as early as the 15th century. It was introduced many years later into Europe, the Americas and the rest of the wold. It came to India around the 17th century when 6 coffee pods were planted near Mysore. The ensuing cultivation and consumption of coffee in the region saw the ushering in of the “kapi” culture that is so prevalent in the south.
The short term effects of the drink are well known; it “stimulates” the brain, helps fight sleep and increases urination. Over-stimalution may cause anxiety, sleeplessness, palpitations, rise in blood pressure and increased blood sugar levels through the release of stress hormones, epinephrine and cortisol. The risk of stillbirths may be increased with excess use during pregnancy, and anemia may occur due to coffee interfering with absorption of iron in the gut.
Population studies however show a lower frequency of a variety of diseases among regular moderate coffee drinkers.They are less likely to develop gallstones, dental caries, gout and show lower rsik of heart disease, hypertension, migraine and diabetes.  Anti-oxidants in the drink probably account for most of these benefits, as do the minerals selenium and zinc, in protecting against diabetes by stimulating the pancreas.
Coffee drinking is churning society too, widening the rift between the “classic” filter-coffee lover, and the new- age young aficionado who can confidently have his pick from the mind-boggling variety that a coffee-bar menu now offers: cappucino, latte or expresso, Arabic, Brazilian or Indian, large, moderate or small, decaf or normal, hot or iced, with or without sugar etc, his nonchalance often assuming a style statement.
Coffee drinking is clearly evolving, offering a type of drink, a place and a style for everyone and every occasion.  How did you have your morning cup?
As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 15 January, 2012.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching and Learning – is there a trick?

One of the big mistakes that we as parents and teachers often make, and that could stifle the mental development of our children, is to treat them as just small adults! In fact, it is this attitude of grown-ups that could be leading our next generation to become stereotyped conformists rather than original thinkers and innovators. And if we intend to drive home health messages and inculcate healthy habits we need to tailor our efforts to their cognitive potential. That children indeed think and discover the world differently was first noticed by a Swiss scientist Jean Piaget in the early 20th century. He studied his own three children grow and was intrigued by how they behaved, played games and learnt at different ages. With further observations and experiments, he propounded the theory of ‘cognitive development’, placed great importance on the education of children and is hailed even today, 30 years after his death, as a pioneer of the constructive theory of knowing.  He...

The Doctor’s Dress

The familiar white coat worn by physicians as their distinctive dress for over 100 years, has started generating  murmurs  of controversy. It is not uncommon to find the blood pressure to be higher when measured by a white-coat-wearing-doctor in the hospital or clinic than the readings obtained at home by relatives.  This is due to the anxiety that the white coat and the hospital setting evokes in patients, and has been termed “White Coat Hypertension”. Mature clinicians often routinely subtract a few points from these measurements when entering records in case charts or calculating the dose of anti-hypertensive medications to be prescribed. The white coat scares children too.  Kids often express their dislike for this dress by crying and screaming and by denying access to their bellies or chest for examination by paediatricians in this attire. Many pediatricians across the world have folded up their white coats and taken to informal colourful dressing to...

Questions from a Doctor’s Life

There is hardly any person in Uttar Pradesh who has not heard of Dr D K Chhabra, a senior neurosurgeon, who died recently. Over the decades his expertise, pragmatic advice and popularity had broken the shackles of his narrow surgical field coming to be known as a “brain-specialist”and a genuine adviser for all health problems. I got to know him in 1987 when I joined the upcoming Sanjay Gandhi PG Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) in Lucknow as a young member of the faculty in Gastroenterology. He had moved from his alma mater the KG Medical College where he is still regarded as a legend. An omnipresent bachelor doctor living in the duty room readily available to help anybody anytime.He was tasked to heading and developing Neurosciences at SGPGI. He had an eye for detail and was tasked additionally by the director to set up not just his department, but the whole hospital, the building, equipment and the campus. DKC was a tall and handsome man who spoke little. But when he did inl...