Cardio coffee
A lot of nutritionists will tell you that coffee -- especially all of the caffeine it contains -- is bad for you. But a recent study has shown that drinking coffee can decrease the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or diabetes, especially in postmenopausal women.
During the study, researchers examined the coffee-drinking habits of 27,312 healthy women, ages 55 to 69, for 15 years. When it was over, researchers saw that the women who drank one to three cups of coffee every day were 28 percent less likely to die of non-cancerous inflammatory diseases like heart disease than the women who didn't drink coffee at all.
Researchers attributed coffee's heart-healthy, anti-inflammatory benefits to the drink's high levels of antioxidants. In fact, some scientists think that coffee is higher in antioxidants than any other food or beverage.
To get an idea of how many antioxidants coffee contains check out these numbers:
Research has shown that the average adult gets 1,299 mg of antioxidants from coffee every day.
Tea comes in second, with 294 mg.
Other popular daily antioxidant sources are bananas (76 mg), dry beans (72 mg), and corn (48 mg).
Of course, I would never advise you to drink as much coffee as some of the women in the study did (some actually drank more than six cups a day). One to two cups a day is plenty. And keep in mind, too much coffee can make you jittery and affect your sleep, so be careful with it.
Get off the couch by exercising confidence
You've heard me say it before: exercise is essential to maintaining a healthy weight and fighting off disease. But there are all sorts of factors that may be standing in your way. And you might not even realize it.
In a recent study, researchers studied the exercise habits of 274 middle-aged adults -- all of them at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. And, of course, they found that the thinnest, least stressed, least depressed, and the most confident in their exercise abilities were the most likely to exercise on a regular basis.
Okay. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. But here's something you may not have thought about: They also found that, among other factors, a lack of self-confidence can be a big part of what's keeping you on the couch and out of the gym.
A lot of people -- especially people who are extremely overweight or obese -- just don't have the confidence to walk into a gym or take a jog around the block. They're not just embarrassed, they're also unsure of how much exercise they can handle, or if they know how to exercise properly at all.
To help solve self-confidence issues for women, the researchers suggested women-only fitness programs and women-only gyms. A lot of these places give women more personal attention, and participants feel less like people are watching and scrutinizing their every move.
Also, people who are severely overweight might need counseling to learn about what kinds of exercises are best for them, given their current condition. They may also need extra help shedding the extra pounds (this could mean a physical trainer or a special diet) before they can become even more active.
The researchers also suggested motivational programs to get people more enthusiastic about exercise. And they suggested counseling for people who might be dealing with anxiety, stress, and depression -- other factors that the researchers thought could be keeping people off the treadmill and on their couches.
I try to individualize exercise recommendations based on the patient. But in all cases, the best exercise will always be the exercise you'll actually do. Start out carefully though. Any man over 45 and any woman over 50 who hasn't been exercising regularly should have their doctor perform a treadmill stress test before getting involved in a vigorous exercise routine. This can help you determine how much exercise your heart and body can handle. It can also help you find out about any problems you might not know about otherwise.
Until next time,
Dr. Alan Inglis
House Calls
