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Keep Drinking That Coffee, It May Be Keeping You From Suicide


July 26, 2013 | Andy Cush

Yet another reason to continue with that borderline-problematic coffee addiction: a Harvard University study showed that subjects who had two to four cups of coffee a day were half as likely to commit suicide as those that didn’t.

PopSci explains how the study was conducted:

Researchers examined data from three U.S. studies evaluating coffee and overall caffeine intake every four years. This included 43,599 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1988-2008), 73,820 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (1992-2008) and 91,005 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II (1993-2007). The subjects shared information about their caffeine intake via questionnaires, and the studies involved 277 cases of suicide.

So what about coffee makes it so life-affirming? Harvard’s people speculate it might have to do with its stimulative properties, which boost serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline, AKA the neurotransmitters that make you happy.

(Photo: Martin Chathrae/Flickr)