Studies Show Caffeine’s Dual Nature

Once considered harmful, caffeine has recently been given a face-lift of sorts thanks to a number of scientific studies into its potential benefits and supposed bad qualities. Here's a summary:

Pros

The Famous Boost
Caffeine can sharpen your short-term memory, trick you into feeling less tired, and trigger a mild, sometimes useful stress. In recent studies of some longtime coffee drinkers, it has been shown that this stress was not found to be linked to an increased risk of hypertension. And athletes sometimes use caffeine for a temporary edge: caffeine may blunt the pain of sore muscles.

Disease Prevention
Caffeine may be linked to fewer instances of Parkinson's disease among coffee drinkers, as well as a reduced risk of liver cancer, cirrhosis, gallstones, colon cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Health experts know the antioxidants and chlorogenic acid in coffee are beneficial to the human body; the caffeine is increasingly seen as helpful, too.

Low-Guilt Options
Coffee and tea have very low or no calories, cholesterol, fat, sodium, and carbs. Of course, sugar changes that. If you've never been a fan of black coffee before, now might be the time to give it another chance, though a little milk may be good for your bones. Sodas are another story. Unlike in tea and coffee, the caffeine in soda is not natural, and few sodas contain antioxidants.

Brain Fitness
According to studies of mice given 6 to 8 cups of coffee a day at Cornell University and Turku University in Finland, caffeine may prevent damage to the nervous system. Other studies have linked coffee to decreased incidences of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Additionally, the Cornell-Turku study shows that caffeine may prevent MS from developing in mice, suggesting that more research should be done on how caffeine and the nervous system interact in humans.