caffeine

Caffeine consumption, the hot chocolate market and Obama's legacy + this day in history w/Marion Barry and our song of the day by Right Said Fred on your Morning Monarchy for January 18, 2017.

Scientists have identified a gene that may explain why some people have undeniable coffee cravings and hit the coffee pot multitudinous times a day. [1]
For the study, researchers looked at a population of people in villages in Italy, and conducted a genome-wide association study in which they examined markers in DNA and identified a gene called PDSS2 that could play a role in caffeine metabolism.

Have you ever experienced a long-lasting cough, unable to find a solution after going through a string of pharmaceutical medications? Fortunately, one study looking at natural alternatives to medications found what could sometimes be a superior alternative – a combination of honey and coffee – for the treatment of persistent post-infectious cough (PPC).

A Vermont college just banned the sale of energy drinks on its campus, saying the beverages contribute to risky sex and unwanted behaviors.
Middlebury College Dining Services will no longer sell products like 5-Hour Energy, Red Bull, or Monster Energy on its campus. College officials have linked the beverages to “problematic behavior” such as alcohol abuse, and “high-risk sexual activity.” It says, also, that the drinks don’t contribute to the dining service’s mission to “nourish” its students.

Nestle claims to have created a way for people to get an all-day caffeine boost from a single cup of coffee.
Scientists at the Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, together with École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and university ETH Zurich say they’ve found a technique which allows one little cup of coffee to release nutrients in a slow and sustained way.
The technique, which revolves around “cubosomes,” could potentially be used in a variety of other products, as well.

Heavy coffee drinkers are far more likely to survive colon cancer than those don’t drink coffee, a new study concluded.
Significant benefits were found to begin at two to three cups per day. Colon cancer patients who drank four or more cups of caffeinated coffee per day had half the rate of recurrence or death than non-coffee drinkers. [1]
The study abstract concludes:

Most of us have likely observed what happens when we have a cup of coffee with dinner, but new research suggests that imbibing caffeine can have more deleterious effects on our sleep cycle than we may have thought.

Five manufacturers of powdered caffeine have been informed by the FDA that they must stop producing some of their products, provide measuring devices for their products, or package their products in smaller amounts after the agency found that some packages of the substance contained as much as 50,000 servings of caffeine. [1]

We know that just enough coffee can perk you up, and too much coffee can keep you up. Now, scientists are saying that moderate amounts of coffee can improve your cognitive abilities.
People who consistently drink one to two cups of coffee per day throughout their lives and don’t regularly drink more than that significantly decrease their chances of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to researchers.

Who hasn’t heard growing up that pouring a can of Coca Cola on car rust can literally remove it in no time at all? We’re not suggesting that Coke is a great rust remover, only that the urban myth was one of the most popular of the era.
Fast forward to 2015 and now we see that Coca Cola is getting another bad rap, only this time it’s the human body that is closely examined after a can of Coke is being poured down the gullet.