Coffee!

Coffee lovers among us, and I count myself one of them, rejoice!  That's the substance of a study published in Circulation this week that Rick and I feature on PodMed, and the upshot is simple: coffee drinkers live longer.  Rick is of course quick to point out that this is merely an association and therefore does not prove causality, but as for me and my habits, this is one addiction I plan to continue.

What exactly did they do in this study? Researchers crunched numbers from the Nurses Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, and the second iteration of the Nurses Health Study, looking at consumption of coffee, including caffeinated and non-caffeinated varieties, as well as all cause and cause specific mortality.  They found that coffee consumption of from one to five cups per day was inversely related to mortality, whether that beverage contained caffeine or not.  Cause specific mortality also demonstrated an inverse relationship, including death from cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, or suicide. There was no association found between cancer risk and coffee consumption.

Other topics this week include measuring body temperature in Annals of Internal Medicine, and two from NEJM: an oral treatment for respiratory syncytial virus and germ  line mutations and cancer in kids.  Until next week, y'all live well.