Relationships | 10/14/2008 8:40 am

Ladies, Don't Fret About Having Another Cuppa Joe

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Good news for women who can’t get through the day without a moderate java jolt.

Researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Tokyo Women’s Medical University say a study of nearly 40,000 women has found no overall link between caffeine and breast cancer, though some women who have benign breast lumps might be at a higher risk, Reuters reports.

Some earlier studies suggested caffeine could play a role in breast cancer. But the recent study found "no overall association between caffeine consumption and breast cancer risk," researchers said in a report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

But in women with benign breast disease — nonmalignant lumps or tumors — there was a significantly increased risk of breast cancer among those who drank four or more cups of coffee every day. Benign breast disease is generally considered a risk for breast cancer.

But study co-author Shumin M. Zhang, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, says it is not clear if this observation about the excess coffee consumption and lesions was real or a chance finding.

"I would interpret this subgroup analysis with caution," she told WebMD. "These findings really should reassure women. From this and other studies, I would say that it is pretty clear that there is no overall increase in risk."

Nutrition researcher Walter Willett and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health have also suggested a slight increase in breast-cancer risk among postmenopausal women who drink caffeine, but he also told WebMD that women shouldn’t worry about the subgroup finding.

"The consistent thing in all the research is that nobody has seen an overall increase in breast-cancer risk,” he said.

The study appears in the October 13 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Read more about: Breast Cancer, Caffeine, Cancer, Coffee, Health, News, Research, US, World

11 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

This new finding is going to be a huge relief to a lot of women. Caffeine has long been our way of coping with daily stress and fatigue. A quick way to boost our moods and make it through the morning, all at the risk of our health. For me it is wonderful news because although I’m not a coffee drinker, I do result to “real” soda on mornings when I need to perk up.

By Belinda Joy on 10/14/2008 8:51 am

e-mail alert

Beware girls of this > every cup of JOE kills 20% of good bacteria …and I am a Coffee- HOLIC !I love my coffee ….cant cope with-out it …I cant talk right or think …I am like a drunk person with-out it ..You must take PROBIOTICS … or you will pay years from now …like me …and drink kefir …read about Kefir it has Tryptophan in it ..I take Jarrow brand Probiotics …when I can remember to … and Nature Made …ya know Nature Made is the only one who has the real Q-10 in it all the others are BOGUS ….Dr.Oz said so on Oprah …they tested all these vitamins and only Nature Made had the actual Q-10 in it ? Why I talk about it ? Because we all need to take MORE Probiotics …and what I did to my self drinking coffee since I was 5 yrs old …and I am paying the price for it now …..

By Eliza Dodd on 10/14/2008 8:52 am

e-mail alert

I don’t know about coffee killing off good bacteria but any antibiotics, the Pill, HRT, steroids or just too much sugar in your diet can kill off good bacteria. When this good bacteria, which acts like the police in your gut, is killed off it gives the naturally occurring yeast candida albicans the chance to mutate into the mycelial fungal form. Doesn’t sound like much of a problem, does it? The trouble is it burrows through the walls of your small intestine which is meant to be porous like blotting paper, but isn’t meant to be like a sieve. This sieve-like state is known as ‘leaky gut’ (found commonly in the digestive tracts of children with autism) and this causes problems because most of us don’t chew our food properly, expecting our stomachs to ‘just sort it out’ for us. When undigested food particles (which the stomach can’t always sort out for us) get into the leaky walled small intestine, they can then get out of the leaky walled small intestine and into our blood streams. Then the immune system is triggered because it senses an invader, straps on its red cape like Superman and flies off around our blood stream to kill off the invader with histamines and white blood cells, treating it like a bacteria, virus or fungus. This leads to food intolerances, because the immune system has a memory and every time you eat the offending food again, the immune system will react. So food intolerances are not all in the mind and Eliza Dodd is on the right track with the probiotics because they are good bacteria and boost the ‘policemen’ in your gut to prevent all of this. If all of this has taken place, then a good anti fungal is what you need as well as the probiotics, they can’t do all the work on their own. And how do you feel if all of this has taken place? Like crap, tired, bloated, headachey, foggy headed, poor concentration and memory. Any of this sound familiar? It was because of this that I first went to a kinesiologist in the UK and thanks to her getting me better, like that guy in the Remington ad, I trained to become a kinesiologist myself to identify when someone is suffering from this and get them better. I may not be a doctor but I have a very good track record of curing people of this draining condition. Eliza, I bet you wished you had never mentioned probiotics now! I really don’t think you need to beat yourself up about the coffee though, some well-meaning doctor probably gave you antibiotics when you were five (although I have been drinking coffee myself since about then!). Best wishes to you.

By Katrina Woodrow on 10/14/2008 10:44 am

e-mail alert

Hey Katrina …thank you …now you have to tell me something special >> How do I get my gut back to normal ? I have been threw some pure HELL since 2003 ….yes the workmans comp doctors tried to kill me with steriods …really right at the end of my life (almost ) a Duke Doctor told me that they were trying to kill me …for real ! And I had to Heal They Self ! along with TONS of Begging and Pleading and Crying for a whole year to GOD …I am going to write a book about My Health Care Horror story …so this will not happen to anyone else ..I am done several cleanses with out Probiotics …I DIDNT KNOW ….that I needed too replace all that stuff back after my cleanes ..I did a gall stone flush I found on curezone.com …that was the hand of GOD ….and I irraticated my HBV that I caught at work …thats why workmans comp gave me steriods …they wanted me dead …I would of cost them maybe Millions ….then i was refused @ the Emergency room @ that time and I had to go home and find a HEALER and curezone.com up …HAND OF GOD ….and I did it and it saved my life …even the black circles under my eyes went away …and I felt 20 yrs younger …but i did not take probiotics …and then I got into a mess a BIG ugly mess ….can you guess what ? I took down a 100 yr old barn …can you guess what company I got in my gut ? You just would belive it …What is this Kenoitics word …Right now I havent looked it up …but can you help me ? I have no Helath Care …thank you and GOD BLESS ….

By Eliza Dodd on 10/14/2008 11:39 am

e-mail alert

Right, find a friendly doctor who will prescribe fluconazole for you (you can’t buy it over the counter in the US). I would recommend that you try for three or four capsules (they each work over a 72 hour period - I am also married to a pharmacist and he approves of what I do and recommend). Take one capsule and leave a 3 day gap, then take another until you have finished them in this manner. Get some milk thistle capsules and take them at the same time to support your liver and help you deal with the ‘die off’ effect of the fluconazole. This can make you feel temporarily worse (a bit fluey and headachey) but stick with it. The crucial thing to do while you are taking the fluconazole is to remove all sugary foods and yeasty foods from your diet (yes, that means bread and mushrooms and even fruit as that is a type of sugar too) as yeast/candida feed on sugar - so you don’t want to be feeding the little critters while you are trying to kill them off. It is self-defeating and wastes your money too. I don’t normally recommend either aspartame or Splenda, but during this period if you have to resort to them do, it will help keep you sugar free. The yeast is probably making you crave sugar and you possibly have a high-carb, high sugar diet as a result. If you can keep to a Dr Atkins type of diet with lots of vegetables, meat and fish, it is the best way to do it. In kinesiology, practitioners use muscle testing to help identify what is going on in the body. We aren’t allowed to diagnose as we aren’t medically trained, that notwithstanding, it is amazing how we do manage to identify candida, parasites, helicobacter pylori (a bacteria in the stomach) and bring patients back to health. It does take at least 2 years to become this kind of ‘quack’ though! Stay in touch, I have put an e-mail alert on this, so if you have any queries, just drop me a line.

By Katrina Woodrow on 10/14/2008 12:05 pm

e-mail alert

there is a very dense natural sweetener called stevia. it’s a white powder.

By mary lou s on 10/15/2008 3:33 am

e-mail alert

There is indeed, you can also buy it in drop form. I use it in my porridge but it doesn’t taste exactly the same as sugar. It has a licorice type flavour but if you like it, it is very useful. You can buy it easily in the US but I have to bring it back to the UK with me from vacations and because of that I don’t recommend it to my patients here as they can’t just go out and buy it. Sugar free jellies can be helpful as well. I have a sweet tooth so know only too well how hard it can be to go without sweet food for a couple of weeks or so. I usually lose about 5 pounds though!

By Katrina Woodrow on 10/15/2008 6:11 am

e-mail alert

Always wished I liked coffee, for some reason the smell just turns me off. I always got my caffeine from Coke, even in cold winter weather. Gave that up for water when I lived in desert climate. The Coke was too sweet to quench my thrist. Glad for all those who are big coffee drinkers. Which seems to be most of country nowadays.

By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 10/14/2008 9:03 am

e-mail alert

Women beware of McNuts Health Care Plan …1. McCain will tax your health care benefits at work McCain’s health care plan will make people pay income taxes on the value of their health care benefits at work. So if your employer pays $10,000 a year for your health insurance, you will start having to pay taxes on that $10,000, just like you do on your wages or salary. 2. And give you a tax credit for less than five months of health care (after that you’re on your own). McCain will give a family a tax credit of $5,000 0 – paid to your insurance company - but the average cost of a family health care plan in 2007 was $12,680. So McCain’s plan will give you enough to pay from January to May. You’ll need to come up with the money for June through December! 3. You may be one of 20 million people who will lose your health benefits A study published in the respected journal Health Affairs found that 20 million will lose their employer paid for health insurance under the McCain plan, because many employers will decide they no longer have a responsibility to pay for health coverage for their workers. 4. And be forced to buy health insurance on your own When you lose your health coverage at work, you’ll need to look for coverage in the individual market. But you’ll no longer have your employer doing the shopping for coverage and paying for coverage. 5. You won’t be covered for pre-existing conditions - and may not be able to get coverage at all When you are on your own, health insurance companies do not cover pre-existing conditions and they often refuse to sell any coverage to people who have had asthma, cancer or other common diseases. The federal law that protects people who get health insurance at work doesn’t apply when you buy health insurance in the individual market. 6. But you will pay higher premiums as you get older or sicker or if you’re a woman In the individual market, health insurance companies charge higher premiums to people as they get older and charge more for people who have been treated for illnesses. Younger women get charged more than men of the same age, simply because they can become pregnant. 7. You may have deductibles as high as $11,200 a year You may only be able to afford insurance plans with high deductibles, which under current federal law can be as much as $11,200 for a family plan. 8. With barebones benefits and no consumer protections John McCain’s plan would take away the protections that your state now offers people who buy health insurance on their own. Your state law requires health insurance to provide standard benefits and consumer protections. McCain’s plan allows health insurance companies to get out of following your state’s health insurance laws. 9. McCain protects health insurance profits - by passing the cost to taxpayers and the sick. McCain’s solution for people whom health insurance companies won’t cover - because they’ve been treated for an illness - is to put them in a high-risk pool, paid for by state taxpayers and by charging high premiums. 10. Of course, John McCain won’t have to worry about any of this for his health care. You may not be covered, but John McCain will. As a Senator, he’ll still get good coverage paid for by the federal government. As a veteran, he can also get cared for through the Veteran’s Administration. And as a senior, he can get Medicare. That’s three ways that the government provides health care for John McCain. Health Care for America Now! (“HCAN”), a section 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization, is a broad coalition of nonprofit and political organizations that are working to promote quality, affordable health care for all Americans. HCAN and each of its members conducts and funds only activities appropriate to its tax and election law status. This statement was not funded or endorsed by HCAN’s 501(c)(3) members.

By Eliza Dodd on 10/14/2008 9:05 am

e-mail alert

My sister has fibrocystic breasts and has not had ANY caffeine , which includes de-caf coffee & tea and chocolate, for 30 years which she swears has helped. I don’t know enough about it to know if she is right , buy DAMN, no chocolate !! When my husband stopped smoking 15 years ago I stopped making coffee in the morning because it was a trigger. I switched to my Irish mother’s favorite, tea. Now I can’t start my day without my cup of English Breakfast Tea. No buzz though. Can anyone tell me why Swedes drink so much coffee ? My mother -in-law was Swedish and had coffee going all day, strong and dark. My husband, once he gets to work, drinks at least 8 or 9 cups. Anyone I’ve met who is of Swedish descent is a huge coffee drinker , I’ve always wondered why …. those long dark winters ?

By EKA - on 10/14/2008 11:18 am

e-mail alert

Gee, where have I been? I never thought caffeine has estrogen in it, and I used to feel better after drinking it. I didn’t realize Swedes drink so much coffee… I suspect it has to do with Scandinavian habits and lifestyles. Otherwise maybe just the weather. ? I never really thought about it before. Curious, though. My family has a Norwegian background, and we have always drank a lot of coffee, too. I never thought much about this, either.

By Ro H on 10/15/2008 2:33 am