Hacker News Reader

`It feels a lot better not to be addicted, but now I'm not sure whether I should resume.`

I feel the same way. Skeptical of this research after the wine/resveritol controversy. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120501134209.ht...

And Spain's research into the benefits of alchohol: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8367141.stm

Would less than three cups a day work as well?

`I wonder what makes the combination of coffee and caffeine different than either of them individually.`

Caffeine and antioxidants? Grounds for more research for sure.

FTA: "Alzheimer’s mice given caffeine alone or decaffeinated coffee had a very different immune marker profile."

> @hendler: "Grounds[sic] for more research for sure."

I fresh grind coffee beans for each cup, with a coffee maker that has a bean bin, so it's not convenient to swap types of beans.

To control caffeine intake while enjoying coffee, I use decaf beans, and take an aspirin+caffeine tablet with the first cup of decaf but not with subsequent cups.

This lets me regulate caffeine, gives me the RDA of aspirin, and lets me enjoy as many cups as suits a given morning without risk of jitters.

That said, I can certainly understand why the researchers would think to check caffeine alone vs decaf alone, while not checking caffeine + decaf. I suspect my use case is unusual.

> Grounds for more research for sure.

I'm surprised the seriousface brigade on HN hasn't lynched you for saying that in a thread about coffee.

Coffee also apparently prevents prostate cancer to some degree too: http://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20110517/coffee-ma...

For your own safety, go make some now.

It takes me about a week to lose the withdrawal symptoms. I do it once in a while, partially to let my system relax a bit and to reduce my tolerance for the stuff.

Still, it's not addictive, and I certainly noticed my lower performance without the stuff than with. A reasonable tradeoff I think.

"About a week and a half ago I gave up drinking coffee due to the withdrawal symptoms I experienced if I went a day without it (fatigue, headaches). It feels a lot better not to be addicted, but now I'm not sure whether I should resume."

You do realize that that thought pattern is probably influenced by your psychological addiction, which you really cannot say you got rid of in a week?

I should know, I go through it every third month or so :) Sometimes I have gone for a month without coffee, but always that idea, "it's not so bad, everyone's doing it and there's health benefits" pops back. I don't know why we don't call it a (marvellous) drug, really.

Observational studies are not reliable to draw conclusions however. It can give you hints, but its not science.

ANd I would not give too much credit to the present study described here, the sample size is so limited (less than 200) that it's not even remotely significant.

Modern clinical studies on Al-Zheimer recruit several thousands participants over the span of several years, with appropriate medical follow up. Observational studies are the equivalent of qualitative studies in consumer researches...