Even more benefits from this beloved, all-natural cancer-fighter
It’s hard to imagine a natural cancer-fighter more effective than one of the most beloved beverages ever concocted: Coffee.
That’s right. Go ahead and have a cup of cancer prevention. In fact, have two or three to really boost your defenses!
Among the thousands of studies weighing the benefits of coffee drinking, its place as a cancer inhibitor is solid. And the latest research provides even more insight into why coffee protects against certain types of cancers — as well as how much you should drink to reap these therapeutic benefits.
Packed with cancer-fighting compounds
Last year, Italian researchers conducted a massive review of coffee studies. Overall, they found coffee drinking to be highly beneficial to heart and metabolic health.
They also found a strong association between coffee drinking and significantly reduced risks of several cancers — including breast, colorectal, and prostate.
The researchers noted two reasons why coffee might have such profound cancer protective effects:
- Caffeine and other coffee phytochemicals trigger enzymes that help regulate DNA repair, liver function, and metabolism of insulin and glucose.
- Coffee phytochemicals are particularly important for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
In Dr. Fred Pescatore’s Essential Protocol to a Cancer-Free Future, he delves even further into the specific cancer-fighting properties of coffee.
He says, “Coffee is packed with cancer-fighting compounds. Its impressive profile of cancer-fighters includes phenols like chlorogenic, caffeic, and coumaric acids — all powerful antioxidants that can purge toxins and inhibit cancer growth.”
In addition, the process of roasting coffee beans creates melanoidins and diterpenes — natural compounds that shield your body from dangerous free radicals.
A wide range of protection
Taking into account the vast amount of research on coffee and its powerful ability to stop cancer in its tracks, Dr. Pescatore believes it has every right to be considered a “health food.”
He explains, “The overwhelmingly positive research on coffee and cancer prevention (as well as the prevention of diabetes, liver disease, kidney stones, Parkinson’s disease, and many other health problems) means that plain old black coffee is, in fact, a health food.”
Let’s look at some of the impressive research Dr. Pescatore cited regarding this simple beverage’s protective effects:
- University of California scientists compared the daily coffee drinking habits of about 5,000 colorectal cancer survivors with the same number of healthy volunteers. Results showed that just one to two coffee servings per day was linked to a 26 percent drop in colorectal cancer risk, even when accounting for other risk factors such as family history of cancer. Impressively, as coffee consumption went up, cancer risk dropped an additional 24 percent!
- In an 8-year study from Harvard School of Public Health, women diagnosed with colon cancer who drank two or more cups of coffee daily were 47 percent more likely to survive, compared to people who drank less than two cups daily. In fact, the coffee drinkers were 21 percent less likely to die from any cause during the eight years of the study.
- A European Journal of Cancer Prevention study found that drinking two to three cups of coffee each day lowers the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer by nearly 20 percent.
- Another European study also found a 20 percent risk reduction of deadly melanoma skin cancer among those who drank the most coffee — either caffeinated or decaffeinated.
“In fact,” Dr. Pescatore says, “coffee might help prevent every type of cancer, according to Japanese researchers. Their analysis of health data from more than 80,000 people showed that coffee drinkers had a 25 percent lower risk of cancer compared to people who never drank coffee.”
A warning for moms-to-be
But coffee does come with one word of warning.
In the Italian study I mentioned, researchers pointed to a “probable” link between caffeine intake (from coffee and any other caffeine sources) and higher risk of miscarriage.
The researchers note that fetuses don’t have a critical enzyme that metabolizes caffeine. This risk isn’t entirely confirmed, but the potential is strong enough that researchers advise women to curb their caffeine intake while pregnant.
But outside that 9-month window of pregnancy, coffee is truly a cancer-fighting tonic with a wide range of additional health benefits.
So go ahead and indulge in your daily cup. And that’s just one of the many daily cancer-fighting strategies you’ll discover in Dr. Pescatore’s Essential Protocol to a Cancer-Free Future. Click here to learn more about this one-of-a-kind online learning tool, or to enroll today.
SOURCES
“Coffee, Caffeine, and Health Outcomes: An Umbrella Review” Annual Review of Nutrition 2017; 37(August): 131-156. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-071816-064941