This was written by pre-medical student Jorge Gonzalez with the intention of persuading readers to take better care of oneself. The method of encouragement being used is Aristotle’s three pillars of rhetoric without the intention of withholding critical information or supplying false information. Instead, this method utilizes emotions to engage the audience, logic to make a claim, and credibility to support this claim. This was written in reference to the article “Coffee Consumption and Risk of Atrial Fibrillation in the Physician’s Health Study,” by Vijaykumar Bodar, et al.
Coffee has been studied to find that 1-3 cups per day may lower the risk of atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular rhythm of the heart that is associated with poor circulation. This study, published by the Journal of the American Heart Association, correlated the pharmacological effects of the antioxidants present in coffee. The antioxidants found in the study included: cafestol which has been found to benefit the liver, trigonelline which can be used as an antidiabetic, chlorogenic acid which induces body fat loss by thermogenesis like a statin, quinine which is typically used to treat malaria, and polyphenols which protects against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and neurodegenerative diseases (Garg, Satish K; Pandey, Kanti Bhooshan). This combination of antioxidants, the study finds, could lead to a reduction of cardiovascular events through an anti-inflammatory effect and protection against atrial fibrillation.
Our practice recommends no more than one cup of coffee a day. Coffee is a diuretic which often leads to dehydration and, as a stimulant, consumers usually will want to consume more. Water is the most important nutrient for the body. Additionally, coffee, when consumed with alcohol, can increase the risk of atrial fibrillation. Our practice focuses on circulation and it is important to maintain good blood flow for other medications to function and in order to avoid additional diseases in the future.
Work Cited:
Bodar, Vijaykumar, et al. “Coffee Consumption and Risk of Atrial Fibrillation in the Physicians’ Health Study.” Journal of the American Heart Association, 5 Aug. 2019, www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/JAHA.118.011346.
Garg, Satish K. “Chapter 47 – Green Coffee Bean.” Nutraceuticals, 2016, pp. 653–667.
Pandey, Kanti Bhooshan, and Syed Ibrahim Rizvi. “Plant Polyphenols as Dietary Antioxidants in Human Health and Disease.” Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, Landes Bioscience, 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2835915/.
