Originally Posted by
bblair
Compounding the problem is that the popular press sees these "studies"/press releases and publishes them with headlines, "New studies show....."
For example, the conventional wisdom, for whatever that is worth (zero) is that caffeine is an aggrevating factor in dementia and Alzheimers. Yesterday I saw a headline, "studies show..." and it was the exact opposite.
Since this is the Training & Nutrition forum, the most important thing to know about caffeine is:
Caffeine is one of the few supplements consistently shown to improve endurance performance.
Yeah, baby! Any other possible beneficial effect of coffee is of the "yeah, whatever" variety. But, here are the most likely ones:
- Type 2 diabetes, 20-30% risk reduction, strong association
- Parkinson's Disease, 25-30% reduction, strong association
- Liver diseases, lower rates, very strong association
- All-cause mortality, lower rates, moderate-strong association
- Migraine symptom relief, strong evidence (can confirm personally)