A Coffee A Day May Keep Your Crippling Depression Away

By Margaret Hartmann  |  September 27, 2011 | 2:20pm
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It’s time for your monthly update on whether your favorite beverage is saving your life or killing you. Today the news is good: Researchers say women who drink several cups of coffee per day are less likely to become depressed. There’s no time to come down with the blues when you’re tweaked out of your mind on caffeine!

Harvard University researchers decided to investigate the link between depression and coffee consumption after smaller studies found female coffee drinkers were less likley to commit suicide, according to the Wall Street Journal. The study involved analyzing data collected over more than a decade from 50,000 women who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study. Between 1980 and 2004, the women completed riveting surveys about what types of beverages they’d consumed over the past year.

The study found that those who had two to three cups of coffee a day were 15% less likely to become depressed during a 10-year period, compared to women who had one cup or less per week. While other studies have found coffee is best in moderation, the findings suggest ordering a venti is fine. Women who had four or more cups per had reduced their risk of depression by 20%.

Of course, scientists aren’t suggesting that drinking a few more cups of coffee can clear up your mood disorder, and we know of at one point in history coffee acted as a depressant. If our partners berated our coffee-making skills like the asshole husbands featured in ’50s Folgers ads, we’d definitely end up curled in a ball on Betty Draper’s fainting couch.

Coffee May Help Women Lower Depression Risk [WSJ]

Earlier: Men Sure Were Asshats To Their Wives In 50s Era Folgers Coffee Commercials

Image via Vitelle/Shutterstock.

 
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