Coffee Could Protect Women from Risk of Depression

A woman carrying a takeaway coffee. Photo credit: joeszilagyi http://www.flickr.com/photos/rootology/2769416505/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Drink more coffee and you’ll be less depressed! If you’re a woman, that is. At least, that’s the message coming out of the Archives of Internal Medicine, in a report in the 26^thSeptember issue completed by Harvard researchers. The report covered over 50,000 American women, of an average age of 63. It followed them over ten years, from 1996 to 2006, measuring their caffeine consumption over 24 years.

“Our results support a possible protective effect of caffeine, mainly from coffee consumption, on risk of depression,” Dr Michel Lucas, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, rather cautiously said in The Daily Mail.

Can it be true? The more you drink, the better it gets. Science Daily reported that of all central nervous system stimulants, caffeine is the most used across the world. The researches found that women who drank two or three cups of coffee a day had a 15 per cent lowering in the risk of depression; those who scarfed back four gained a massive 20 percent lowering.

Don’t go overboard though. It’s best to be cautious. The Daily Mail said that the scientists thought the caffeine worked as an antidepressant because of its effect on certain hormones such as serotonin. Don’t go for decaf though – it doesn’t have the same effect at all. It’s been reported that coffee has beneficial effects on prostate cancer, gout and Alzheimer’s; but don’t start bingeing on it – it also raises blood pressure. And if you’re pregnant, don’t drink more than two cups a day. Psychcentral was also sceptical, but said that if you’re otherwise healthy in mind and body, what this study seems to be saying is “Why give it up?”

Could alcohol and nicotine also help? “Oh joy!” carolled Lisa Appignanesi on The Guardian. Good news at last, from “that messenger of repeated gloom.” What a shame that there’s no breakdown on “whether it’s espresso, latte or cappucino.” We knew about coffee’s benefits in the Second World War, when caffeine and amphetamines were tested on soldiers. Recently, in Finland, it was shown that coffee drinking men are also less at risk of depression. But is this news all that it’s cracked up to be? It’s depressing, that women are seen as “chemical”, meaning that life “becomes a matter of the vagaries of our hormones or our neurotransmitters.” What would really be interesting would be if we could see how that coffee was drunk – with friends? Alone? Also, it seems coffee drinkers are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, not attend church and not volunteer. Does this mean that nicotine and alcohol help too?