Two Fridays ago, I reported that coffee consumption at 3 cups/day was linked to lower risk of basal cell skin cancer. Then,
last Thursday, I noted that coffee consumption at 6 cups/day was linked to a lower risk of high grade prostate cancer. To close out this coffee trifecta, I direct your attention to a
meta-analysis of prospective studies of coffee consumption published last month in Circulation: Heart Failure in which the
authors concluded that moderate coffee consumption at 4-5 cups/day was inversely associated w/heart failure.
To arrive at their conclusion, the authors analyzed 5 prospective cohort studies involving 140,220 mostly Scandinavian participants followed for anywhere from 10-35yrs. If you ask me, those are some pretty big numbers!
But as
Dr. Gary Schwitzer noted, none of the recent studies involving coffee demonstrate causality, our fancy way of stating cause & effect. These recent studies can only show some association and thus, help develop a hypothesis. Unfortunately, our new media are a bit more glib about this but semantics do matter. As physicians, we have to be very careful about what we say and how we say it. But for that matter, patients also have to be very careful in listening closely and asking for clarification. If we're to improve our health system, we need to improve our communication skills.
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