Gain big benefits of coffee, green tea
The evidence keeps mounting on the health benefits of drinking coffee — filtered, with no added flavors, sugars or dairy — and green tea. We know coffee reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes, liver disease and breast cancer and helps forestall or slow progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and the caffeine and phytonutrients in coffee and green tea can help fight off cancers, dementia and cardiovascular disease.
Plus, a recent meta-analysis in BMJ Open showed that consumption of coffee was associated with a 9 percent reduction in prostate cancer risk.
Now, a 15-year study in the journal Stroke shows that if folks who have had a stroke drink around 24 ounces of green tea daily, they will lower their risk of dying over that period of time by 24 percent and heart attack survivors who drink one 5-ounce cup of coffee a day reduce their overall risk of death by around 22 percent. People who have never had a stroke or heart attack and drink one or more cups of coffee a week have about a 14 percent lower risk of death than noncoffee drinkers. So drink up!
Risks of adult peanut allergies
Researchers have discovered that more adults than kids have a peanut allergy! In fact, 4.5 million Americans over the age of 17 have the condition — and many developed it as grown-ups. Sadly, they are sidelined when it comes to management of the condition.
While the Food and Drug Administration recently approved an allergy therapy (Palforzia) for kids 4 to 17, there are no therapies approved by the Food and Drug Administration for adult-onset food allergy.
That leaves many of the approximately 900,000 adults who end up in the ER every year with a reaction to peanuts without all of the help they need.
According to the study, too many folks 17 and older are not receiving essential counseling and a prescription for lifesaving emergency epinephrine. Compounding the problem: Two-thirds of adults with peanut allergy have at least one other food allergy, often to tree nuts or shellfish.
If you suspect you have a peanut allergy, see a doctor pronto for a diagnosis and treatment. If you are diagnosed but don’t carry an Epipen (injectable epinephrine) to counter an allergic reaction (anaphylactic shock), start doing it now — all of the time, everywhere. And check out foodallergy. org for more info on adult food allergies.