From: pedregal@eternity.cs.umass.edu (Message Meister)
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 09:50:01 -0400 (EDT)


Greetings.  Today, some uplifting health news from our ClariNet newsfeed (so
please do not forward outside the University) courtesy of alert Eric McCall.

	CHICAGO (Reuter) - Women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day
are less likely to commit suicide than women who do not drink coffee,
according to a study released Sunday.
	Habitual coffee drinkers reported less irritability and improved mood
following coffee consumption, according to the study in the Archives of
Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Association.
	 Researchers led by Ichiro Kawachi from Harvard Medical School and
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston conducted a 10-year follow-up of an
earlier study that involved 86,626 female registered nurses aged 34 to 59
years in the United States.
	 They said they found an inverse association between coffee intake and
risk of suicide, despite the fact that regular coffee drinkers were more
likely to smoke, drink alcohol and have higher levels of perceived stress.
	 Several studies have found that people who drink at least two cups of
coffee per day reported improved mood, better social disposition, more
self-confidence and energy.
	 Researchers found that coffee drinkers were less likely to report the
prevalence of hypertension and diabetes and other problems, possibly because
people with these illnesses may choose to avoid coffee.
	 Coffee drinkers were also less likely to report using medications
such as the anti-ulcer drug cimetidine, the high-anxiety drug diazepam, the
antipsychotic drug phenothiazine and the anti-hypertensive drug methyldopa.  -
--