Something’s Brewing… Can You Hear It?

An In-depth Look at Coffee, Aging, & Hearing: Could a Cup a Day Keep the Doctor Away?

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, yes, it does, doesn’t it? But this time there might be something to it. Granted, while coffee won’t necessarily ensure a long-distance relationship with your healthcare team, science is uncovering some intriguing benefits to consuming between 3-5 eight-ounce cups of coffee per day.[1]

These benefits are being noticed by leaders in the health industry. For instance, the American Cancer Society reported, “Numerous studies have shown that coffee drinking is associated with a lower risk of dying from all causes of death.” [2]

In this special report, I’ve brought in the coffee experts from Ionic Coffee to make it more robust (coffee humor, sorry we couldn’t help ourselves). So, read on to find out the pros and cons of consuming caffeinated coffee. Also, get access to a few special offers you won’t want to miss.

Grab yourself a cup o’ joe, and let’s get going...

PROS: 9 Surprising Benefits of Consuming Coffee

Warning: If you’re not already a coffee lover, these might do the trick!

There are many long-term health benefits linked to consuming coffee — with or without caffeine. In fact, what research has discovered is coffee contains specific bioactive compounds that give it neuroprotective benefits and may reduce physical and mental complications of aging.[3] These bioactive compounds and essential nutrients include:

Flavonoids
Magnesium
Niacin
Potassium
Vitamin E

But that’s not all, coffee also provides a powerful boost of antioxidants. Six to be exact. Some only appear once the coffee beans are roasted. Some become more potent the more roasted the beans are — we’re talking your dark roasts here. While other antioxidants are lost with the higher temperatures required to get a dark roast and or once the beans are processed for decaffeination.

Coffeescience.org published a fascinating article reviewing these antioxidants in depth titled, 6 Antioxidants in Coffee You Probably Didn’t Know Existed. If you’re into the science of coffee it won’t disappoint, so check it out.

Regardless of how you like your coffee roasted — light, medium, or dark — you’re still receiving a hefty dose of disease-fighting antioxidant goodness. Which is a good thing since reports show worldwide we drink so much coffee that many of us get more antioxidants from coffee then we do from what fruits or veggies make up our diet.[4]

Kind of amazing and sad all at the same time, no?

Benefits Specific to Consuming Coffee

These first six benefits have everything to do with the unique attributes of coffee from the bioactive compounds, essential nutrients, and antioxidant powers.

Coffee Benefit No. 1

Reduced Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

The benefits of coffee associated with type 2 diabetes are dose-specific as studies reveal your risk is reduced by:[5]

12% for every two cups of caffeinated coffee,
11% for every two cups of decaffeinated coffee, and
14% for every 200mg of caffeine consumers per day.

And for those with type 2 diabetes who drink coffee, they have a 30% decreased risk of dying from the condition.[6]

Finally, the effects of the specific quinine antioxidant and magnesium found in coffee affect blood sugar levels and can help improve your insulin sensitivity. [7]

Coffee Benefit No. 2

Reduced Risk for Liver Cancer

Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The good news is studies show coffee can reduce your risk of liver cancer by up to 40%. Again, it’s coffee’s bioactive compounds, nutrients, and antioxidants that can reduce oxidative stress on the liver. This not only reduces your risk of cancer but other liver-related diseases such as fibrosis and cirrhosis.[8]

Research indicates this also is dose-specific and the more coffee you consume, the lower your risk of dying from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and chronic liver disease (CLD):[9]

2-3 cups per day reduced the risk of dying from
- HCC by 38%
- CLD by 46%
4 or more cups per day reduced the risk of dying from
- HCC by 41%
- CLD by 71%

Coffee Benefit No. 3

Reduced Risk for Colorectal Cancer (CRC)

CRC is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. But don’t despair, they’ve discovered drinking coffee can also reduce your odds of developing CRC by up to 26%. And once again, the benefit is dose-specific, so go ahead, have another cup.[10]

Coffee Benefit No. 4

Reduced Risk for Stroke

Women appear to have the greatest benefit when it comes to coffee reducing their risk of strokes.

One study found drinking 3 or more cups per day reduces our risk of having a stroke by 38%.[11]
A separate study shows drinking 2-5 cups of coffee per day can lower your risk of stroke, cerebral infarction, and subarachnoid hemorrhage by 22-25%.[12]
And yet another study shows a reduced risk of 20% with 2-4 cups per day. Your odds are even better if you’ve never smoked and have consumed 4 or more cups per day as your risk falls by 43%.[12]

What’s more, the cardiac benefits of coffee go beyond lowering your risk of a stroke as studies are also linking a reduction of heart disease in general. We’ll look at this in-depth shortly.

Benefits Specific to Caffeinated Coffee:

These next benefits have long been associated with caffeinated coffee but newer studies are beginning to show even decaffeinated coffee is providing similar effects. Coffee is a hot topic in the science world, so it’ll be exciting to see what they discover as more research is done.

In the meantime, this is what they know…

Coffee Benefit No. 5

Improved Memory

Studies are finding caffeine may reduce your risk of common Neurodegenerative Conditions. While the exact reason for its impact is not yet fully understood by scientists, studies continue to show consuming coffee can lower your risk.[13]

Parkinson’s Disease(PD)[14]
- A global study found a reduced risk by anywhere from 31% all the way up to 80% with drinking 4 cups of coffee per day.
- Risk lowered by 24-32% per 300 mg of caffeine or approximately 3 cups of coffee per day
Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. Your risks could be reduced by up to 65% in your later years if you’ve been a life long coffee drinker. This study suggests both coffee and caffeine are defenses against these diseases. But also, as I was mentioning, more research is needed to fully understand the benefits.[15]

Coffee Benefit No. 6

Improved Mood

Caffeine can lower your risk of depression by 20% [16] But be careful. Depending on how well you tolerate caffeine, too much may cause you anxiety.

There’s good news for all coffee drinkers as recent studies are discovering even decaffeinated coffee appears to have the same effect on our mood and behavior. 17]

Hearing Related Benefits of Coffee

And one more that’ll warm your heart!

I must admit, I’m especially intrigued by these next benefits as they’re specific to hearing health.

Please keep in mind these are associations researchers are finding — the answers about why or how coffee can reduce bilateral hearing loss & tinnitus are still yet to be discovered.

Coffee Benefit No. 7

Reduced Risk for Bilateral Hearing Loss (BLH)

They’ve found drinking coffee on a daily basis can reduce BHL by 50-70%. And it seems you get better results drinking brewed coffee vs canned and instant coffee.[18]

What’s interesting is this association between coffee and reduced bilateral hearing loss varies based on age groups. It will be interesting to follow the research to see if they can find out more specifics.

It's also surprising they found brewing fresh coffee beans made a big difference. What we actually know about the effects of grinding coffee is it:

causes oxidization which impacts the coffee’s aroma
releases CO2 gas which affects the coffee’s flavor
exposes it to moisture which further dilutes the oils that affect the flavor
allows for contamination — in the sense your coffee will absorb other ‘flavors’ from the odors around it.

In fact, most any coffee bean, even in whole bean form, used for brewing is only technically considered fresh for about a two week period after it’s been roasted. And once you grind the coffee you need to use it right away.

What I can tell you with 100% certainty is that from my experience, consuming freshly roasted coffee is by far the tastiest and most wonderful experience.

Coffee Benefit No. 8

Reduced Risk & Improved Symptoms of Tinnitus

One study by the American Journal of Medicine found that women who consumed over 150 mg of caffeine per day were less likely to experience tinnitus. [19]

Another study actually associates the benefits with social activities as those who are more socially active are typically found to be less stressed.[18]

This stress level is tied to the social element of those who primarily drink coffee with friends and loved ones — not alone in their cars or amidst their busy workday. Just saying…

Here’s the Catch

I know right… there’s always a catch *sigh*.

These are two of many specific conditions that might be negatively affected by caffeine. So, please be sure to consult your physician or audiologist and follow their recommendations.

If you have been exposed to loud noise, for example, shooting firearms, fireworks celebrations, flying in an airplane, a loud concert, or construction work you might experience Temporary Threshold Shift (TTS). TTS is a temporary hearing loss due to your inner ear hair cells being overworked and fatigued. In this case:

*DO NOT consume caffeine until your hearing has gone back to normal which can take up to 72 hours. Caffeine, even as little as is found in a single cup of coffee, can prevent your hearing from recovering. [20]

2. Also, if you suffer or are at high risk for Meniere's Disease (MD) — an inner ear disorder that can cause vertigo, ringing in the ear, and hearing problems — dietary restrictions are a key way of managing the disease. And unfortunately, one of the key things to avoid is caffeine. [21]

But this doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the benefits of coffee… stay tuned to hear more!

Jeesh, that was a lot! Go ahead, take a break. Go top off your cup of coffee before you come back and read on. And trust me, it’ll be worth it… not just the coffee of course!

Tinnitus: Do You Hear What I Hear?

Ok, in past posts I’ve discussed hearing loss but never tinnitus. So let me take a moment, and briefly cover a few things you should know about the hearing condition called Tinnitus.

The Truth of Tinnitus

Tinnitus is a ‘phantom noise’ ranging from ringing, buzzing, hissing, humming, to any other high or low pitched sound. It can affect one ear, which is often the case, or both ears. And it may come and go or stick around to torture you.

Tinnitus haunts over 50 million Americans. 20 million of whom suffer chronic tinnitus. And 2 million have extreme, debilitating cases.[22]

Onset of Tinnitus

We don’t know what exactly causes tinnitus nor do we know how to cure it. What we do know is tinnitus isn’t a disease. It's a symptom of an underlying condition such as:

hearing loss
damage to inner ear hair cells
problems with the auditory nerves and pathways
an injury to the outer, middle, or inner ear
blood vessel issues (hence the blood pressure discussion)
middle ear bone conditions
muscle contractions

Tinnitus can come on suddenly with no apparent cause or it might develop after an upper respiratory infection, the start of a new medication, or any number of things really. It might be subjective, meaning only you can hear the noise. Or it might be objective meaning your doctor will hear it when performing an exam.

So the answer to the question, “Can you hear what I hear?” when it comes to tinnitus is a definite maybe, but you’ll have to see your audiologist to know for sure!

If you’d like more detailed information, the Mayo Clinic does a fantastic job of covering all things related to tinnitus. You can check out their article here.

Does Caffeine Make Tinnitus Worse?

Early studies suspected caffeine to be a contributing factor in causing or worsening hearing health, tinnitus especially. But how does caffeine make it worse?

Good question. The answer, caffeine is a stimulant to the central nervous system. So, they associated caffeine with increased hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD). And these health complications play a direct role in our health, our hearing included. For instance, while we don’t know exactly what causes tinnitus or how to cure it, we do know that elevated blood pressure can make it worse.[23]

No. In fact, the only thing they’re finding that causes an increase of tinnitus symptoms is going through caffeine withdrawal. And even once the withdrawal symptoms pass, eliminating caffeine still showed no improvement in tinnitus symptoms. [24]

Coffee Benefit No. 9

Improved Cardiovascular Health

Studies are now finding that moderate coffee consumption, 3-4 cups a day, has a positive effect when it comes to the following: [1]

Blood Pressure
Cardiovascular Disease
Heart Failure
Cardiac Arrhythmias
or Diabetes Mellitus

Coffee’s bioactive compounds, essential nutrients, and antioxidant properties help stop the damaging oxidation process and inflammation that causes our blood vessels to become less elastic as we age. They believe this stiffness is what increases our risk of high blood pressure.

In fact, they discovered those who drink one to two cups of coffee every day had nearly 25% more elasticity measured in their major blood vessels than those who didn’t drink any. And they had five times greater elasticity than those who drank more than three cups of coffee per day. [25]

Do You Have Tinnitus?

All you really need to know about tinnitus is this. If you experience a phantom noise in your ear(s), you need to make an appointment with your trusted audiologist. Especially if it comes with hearing loss or dizziness — please, let us know right away.

If you don’t already have an audiologist as part of your healthcare team, look no further. Even if you’re hearing health is in tip-top shape we can get a baseline to compare it to in the years to come. Click here to schedule your consultation now, I’d love to meet with you.

While there’s no cure for tinnitus, it may be possible to identify the underlying condition causing it. And if we can do that there’s a chance we can, in the course of treating that condition, reduce your tinnitus symptoms as well.

*Even though these benefits are amazing, please always heed your doctor’s advice as they know the ins-and-outs of your current health and hopefully also have a pulse on your history.

Because let’s face it, while coffee is pretty safe, one of the six antioxidants has a dark-side.

One Big Fat (Molecular) CON — Caffeine

That’s right, caffeine is actually categorized as an antioxidant. But, it’s also a stimulant and the most widely consumed drug throughout the world, and just like any other drug, it’s toxic to our system. Now, that being said, science has proven caffeine in small doses can be helpful as we discussed with mood and memory but still, these benefits come at a cost.

What cost exactly depends on your individual health, how well your liver can metabolize caffeine and your overall tolerance of caffeine and it’s side effects.

Drinking an excess of caffeinated coffee — 8 or more cups per day — can lead to the following serious health complications: [26]

Addiction
Increased levels of LDL (bad cholesterol)
Heart Disease
Muscular Tremors
Excessive Weight Gain and Diabetes
Worsen Symptoms of Enlarged Prostates

Better understanding the pros and cons of coffee can leave you wanting one thing...

More Coffee and Less Caffeine!

Uh oh.

Uh-huh.

Brace yourself... we’re going to say it...

Here it comes… the nose-wrinkling, stomach-turning, cringe-worthy, five-letter word — DECAF.

If you’re like my husband and me, we scoffed in the face of decaf. No way. No how.

But since getting a little older we’ve noticed our tolerance of caffeine has declined and now if we want to enjoy a cup of coffee in the evening we’re left with one choice...

So, what have we been doing?

Avoiding decaf and longing for the morning when we can have another cup of course.

That is until my daughter convinced us to try their Swiss Water Decaf blend. You see, she and her husband own a roasting company called Ionic Coffee. To our surprise, their decaf doesn’t taste like the decaf of olden days, which apparently is processed with chemicals to remove the caffeine.

Crazy right? Well, here’s one more mind-boggling fact. Swiss Water Decaf is 99.9% caffeine-free compared to other decaffeination processing methods which can leave up to 10% of the caffeine behind.

I’m still a newbie to the specialty coffee world so I’ll let you check them out for yourself… but I can tell you they’ve got great coffee.

When we’re ready to get Positively Caffeinated (that’s what they call it) we prefer the Iconic Roast. My husband calls it, “The Cowboy Blend”, given it’s got a traditional boldness without all the ‘Fru Fru’ elements that make specialty coffee… well… special.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better…

Interested in giving decaf, half-caf, or just some really great freshly roasted coffee a try?

Thanks to Ionic Coffee you can — and as a token of appreciation for your support for hometown, family-owned businesses like ours, they’re offering you a special discount:

Now through August, shop ioniccoffee.com and receive 20% off your order using code: AUDNW2020.

That’s not all...

Get an extra 10% off your order when you sign up to receive my newsletter.

AND

Get a free bag of coffee and be entered to win a visit from their Mobile Coffee Bar to serve you at your location (with coffee on the house of course) when you purchase a set of hearing aids with me.

So, schedule your free consultation now!

I think all that’s left to say is…

I’m ready for another cup and a big dose of all those perks. So, grab your mug and let’s toast to living life to the fullest!