Recent quotes:

Consumption of coffee or caffeine and serum concentration of inflammatory markers: A systematic review - PubMed

Fifteen studies (8 involving coffee and 7 caffeine) were included. Increased adiponectin levels were found in four of seven trials comparing filtered coffee/caffeinated coffee with placebo or comparing its levels at baseline and after consumption of medium or dark roasted coffee, but no change was seen in caffeine trials. None of the five studies assessing the effects of coffee found changes in C-reactive protein (CPR), but one out of three trials found decreased CPR levels in response to caffeine. Interleukin (IL)-6 was increased by caffeinated coffee compared with placebo in one of four coffee trials, and by caffeine in three out of five studies. Caffeine increased IL-10 levels in two of three trials. These data suggest a predominant anti-inflammatory action of coffee but not of caffeine consumption. Moreover, the proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses to caffeine point to its complex effects on the inflammatory response.

Good news for coffee lovers: Daily coffee may benefit the heart: Drinking two to three cups a day was associated with greatest heart benefits -- ScienceDaily

For the first study, researchers examined data from 382,535 individuals without known heart disease to see whether coffee drinking played a role in the development of heart disease or stroke during the 10 years of follow up. Participants' average age was 57 years and half were women. In general, having two to three cups of coffee a day was associated with the greatest benefit, translating to a 10%-15% lower risk of developing coronary heart disease, heart failure, a heart rhythm problem, or dying for any reason. The risk of stroke or heart-related death was lowest among people who drank one cup of coffee a day. Researchers did observe a U-shaped relationship with coffee intake and new heart rhythm problems. The maximum benefit was seen among people drinking two to three cups of coffee a day with less benefit seen among those drinking more or less.

Could coffee be the secret to fighting obesity? -- ScienceDaily

"From our previous work, we knew that brown fat is mainly located in the neck region, so we were able to image someone straight after they had a drink to see if the brown fat got hotter," said Professor Symonds. "The results were positive and we now need to ascertain that caffeine as one of the ingredients in the coffee is acting as the stimulus or if there's another component helping with the activation of brown fat. We are currently looking at caffeine supplements to test whether the effect is similar.

Liberals do drink more lattes, but maybe not for the reasons you think -- ScienceDaily

In fact, only 16% of liberals, 11% of moderates, and 9% of conservatives prefer lattes. In exploring why liberals show a stronger preference for lattes, the researchers considered numerous factors, including the availability of lattes in one's local area, household income, and gender. Although all of these were predictors of latte drinking, none of them explained the relationship between lattes and liberals. However, latte drinkers' attitudes toward globalization proved most meaningful in explaining why liberals are more likely to drink lattes.

Coffee affects cannabis and steroid systems -- ScienceDaily

Blood metabolites of the endocannabinoid system decreased with coffee consumption, particularly with eight cups per day, the study found. The endocannabinoid metabolic pathway is an important regulator of our stress response, Cornelis said, and some endocannabinoids decrease in the presence of chronic stress. "The increased coffee consumption over the two-month span of the trial may have created enough stress to trigger a decrease in metabolites in this system," she said. "It could be our bodies' adaptation to try to get stress levels back to equilibrium." The endocannabinoid system also regulates a wide range of functions: cognition, blood pressure, immunity, addiction, sleep, appetite, energy and glucose metabolism.

Three or more cups of coffee daily halves mortality risk in patients with both HIV, HCV -- ScienceDaily

Coffee is known to have anti-inflammatory and liver-protective properties. In the general population, drinking three or more cups of coffee a day has been found to be associated with a 14% reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality. This is probably due to the properties of polyphenols contained in coffee that can protect the liver and also reduce inflammation.

Coffee drinking tied to lower risk of suicide | Harvard Gazette

The authors reviewed data from three large U.S. studies and found that the risk of suicide for adults who drank two to four cups of caffeinated coffee per day was about half that of those who drank decaffeinated coffee or very little or no coffee.

Drinking more coffee may undo liver damage from booze | Reuters

Compared to no coffee consumption, researchers estimated one cup a day was tied to a 22% lower risk of cirrhosis. With two cups, the risk dropped by 43%, while it declined 57% for three cups and 65% with four cups. But the results still leave some unresolved questions.

Coffee Tied to Lower Risk of Dying - The New York Times

Compared with abstainers, nonsmokers who drank a cup of coffee a day had a 6 percent reduced risk of death, one to three cups an 8 percent reduced risk, three to five cups a 15 percent reduced risk, and more than five cups a 12 percent reduced risk. There was little difference whether they drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. The association persisted after controlling for age, alcohol consumption, B.M.I. and other health and diet factors. Coffee drinking significantly reduced deaths from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neurological diseases and suicide, although not from cancer.

Caffeine At Night Resets Your Inner Clock : Shots - Health News : NPR

The study showed that the amount of caffeine found in a double espresso, if taken three hours before bedtime, delayed the melatonin surge by about 40 minutes, according to a report published online Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. "We found that caffeine did indeed, in the evening, shift your clock later," Wright says. It was about half the effect the scientists noticed when they instead exposed the volunteers to bright light.
Just in the past few months, studies have shown that caffeine helps female volleyball players hit the ball harder and jump higher, rowers go farther, and cyclists go faster in a 20K time trial. A large body of research shows caffeine helps in "pretty much every kind of endurance exercise," giving a performance advantage of 1.5 percent to 5 percent, says Mark Glaister, an exercise physiologist at St. Mary's University in Twickenham, U.K., and an author of the recent cycling study.
In the Stroop task, which measures reaction time, improved accuracy was observed in subjects who believed they had ingested caffeinated coffee, even if they had only consumed decaf. Subjects who received caffeine and were told they were drinking decaf did not show an improved reaction time. Likewise, in a measure of reward motivation, the Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test, the participants who believed they had consumed caffeine sorted the cards more quickly than those who believed they’d consumed decaf.
In one study, consuming two hundred milligrams of caffeine significantly increased the amount of time it took for people to fall asleep later that night. (An eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee contains ninety-five to two hundred milligrams of caffeine, according to the Mayo Clinic.) It also had a profound effect on the quality of that sleep: it lowered sleep efficiency; the duration of stage-two sleep (the point at which our bodies prepare to enter deep sleep); and the spectral power of delta-wave frequencies (which are closely associated with the depth and quality of sleep). Other studies have linked caffeine to diminished sleep quality and efficiency, along with an increase in the number of times people wake during the night and how tired they feel in the morning.
The famed Baroque composer and pianist was also a notable coffee fiend. Though he's not well regarded for his humor, he turned an amusing poem by his frequent collaborator, Picander, into The Coffee Cantata in 1732. The cantata mocked public outcry about the rise of the Vienna coffeehouse scene. At the time, coffee was regarded as a dangerous societal "vice."
If a customer was particularly bad we exercised one of the only powers we possessed and "decafed" them. To covertly rob a caffeine-addicted asshole of their morning jolt was truly one of the sweetest pleasures of baristahood, and one that my subsequent professions haven’t come close to replicating.
"Caffeine has caused significant problems for some people," said Laura Juliano, a psychology professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and part of a team of researchers studying the harmful effects of caffeine use disorder. "We have people who say caffeine is interfering with their life. They keep saying they're going to stop, but they can't," she said. "I've seen people who have gone to great lengths to get caffeine when it was unavailable. I knew one woman who pretty much ruined her husband's tropical vacation because she spent half the day looking for caffeine."
The basic science of caffeine goes something like this. Cyclic AMP gives your body energy. Phosphodiesterase is an enzyme that breaks down cyclic AMP. Caffeine blocks phosphodiesterase. So cyclic AMP stays around longer when you have caffeine in your blood, and you have more energy. It comes from the natural substances that your body produces and always give you energy; they just last longer. Caffeine also blocks adenosine receptors in your brain. Stephen Braun, author of Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine, once explained it as an "indirect stimulant, as opposed to, say, amphetamine which liberates dopamine, a directly stimulating neurotransmitter. By blocking adenosine receptors, caffeine allows the brain's own stimulating neurotransmitters (i.e. glutamate and dopamine) to do their thing with greater gusto and less restraint."