Health knowledge made personal
  
As always, epidemiological observational studies are perfect for developing hypotheses but add no evidence to demonstrating cause & effect. In other words, while the BBC is willing to state that " Coffee may prevent depression ", this study really does nothing of the sort. In fact, as others noted , perhaps depressed women decided against drinking caffeinated coffee because too much caffeine makes them jittery & anxious and leads to insomnia. At the very least, we can be clear that it's probably not so much the coffee as much as it is the caffeine, which means that perhaps caffeinated tea and gasp! even soft drinks & energy shots, maybe even dark chocolate, might have a similar effect. I can't wait to see that research and how far the pendulum swings! By the way, if you can remember back to last Friday's post regarding the link between depression and stroke , this study goes a long way towards explaining the link between coffee and stroke . . . Yes, it's tenuous at best, but still it's an interesting possibility! Follow @alvinblin 
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