Drinking coffee may lower suicide risk

Good news for coffee lovers: Drinking the caffeinated beverage may lower suicide risk in both men and women by as much as 50 percent, Nature World News reported.

According to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health, coffee accelerates the production of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline.  This is similar to how many common antidepressants act on the central nervous system.

"Unlike previous investigations, we were able to assess association of consumption of caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages, and we identify caffeine as the most likely candidate of any putative protective effect of coffee," said lead study author Michel Lucas, from the Harvard School of Public Health, in a press release.

Lucas and his team analyzed the caffeine consumption of more than 200,000 men and women who had been enrolled in one of three large epidemiological studies looking at coffee consumption.  The researchers looked for all dietary sources of caffeine in their research, from sodas to chocolate.

During the 20-year study period, 277 deaths in the cohort were linked to suicide, and overall, coffee consumption was linked with a lower suicide risk.  However, the researchers don’t recommend making any changes to your morning coffee-drinking routine, Nature World News said.

"Overall, our results suggest that there is little further benefit for consumption above 2-3 cups/day or 400 mg of caffeine/day," the authors wrote.

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