Brewing a miracle every morning

If you rely on coffee for your daily caffeine boost, you're getting a whole lot more than a quick burst of energy.

You're getting more health benefits than I could ever list in a single article... and that list is growing nearly every day.

Two new studies show how a daily cup or three can help protect you from deadly brain tumors and keep your blood vessels young.

In the first study, researchers found that people who drink at least 3.5 ounces of coffee--or what I call "that first sip"--can lower their risk of gliomas, the most common form of malignant brain tumor.

Researchers used data on 521,488 European men and women between 25 and 70 years old collected over an average of 8.5 years.

Most of that data was collected via questionnaires, so take this with a grain of salt (or at least a dollop of cream)-- but the researchers say that coffee drinkers were one-third less likely to be diagnosed with a glioma than those who drank little to no coffee.

Of course, your risk of developing one of these tumors at any point in your lifetime is already pretty low--less than 1 percent--but when you consider that it's a very fatal condition, any chance to lower your risk is a good one.

Tea drinkers, don't feel left out--the study found that your hot beverage of choice can also reduce the risk of a brain tumor.

But let's stay focused on coffee today.

As I've told you before, coffee can help protect against diabetes, lower your risk of prostate and colon cancers, fight off Parkinson's and even protect your heart.

Another new study may help explain that last one... and it starts with a tiny cup of unfiltered thick mud that you probably know of as Turkish coffee.

I won't get into the politics of it, but some people call it Greek coffee--and while it's essentially the same thing, they'll get pretty ticked off if you call it by that other name.

In any case, researchers looking into the remarkable longevity of people on the Greek island of Ikaria, where more than a third of the residents reach the age of 90, found that Greek coffee may actually help keep blood vessels young.

You know what aging can do to people on the outside... and the passage of years can be equally unkind on the insides. For most of us, our blood vessels stiffen as we get older, increasing our blood pressure and the risk of hypertension and heart problems along with it.

In the new study, researchers performed imaging scans on 485 seniors in Ikaria between the ages of 65 and 100 years old, and found that those who drank between one and two cups of Turkish, err, Greek coffee a day had blood vessels that were 25 percent more elastic than those who drank too little or too much of the mud.

These two-cuppers also had a lower risk of diabetes, cholesterol problems and heart disease, and were less likely to be overweight compared to everyone else, according to the study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress.

Coffee, anyone?

On a mission for your health,
Ed Martin
Editor, House Calls