Frontline: Coffee & Tea Add-Ins; Epidcardial Fat; Pain Relievers & Cardio Risk
Calories From Coffee and Tea Add-Ins Can Add Up
Adding sweeteners, cream, milk, and other flavor enhancers to coffee and tea can amount to a whole lot of extra calories, according to research published online Jan. 26, 2017 in the journal Public Health. According to the study findings, about half of all American adults regularly consume coffee, and about one-quarter consume tea. The researchers found that about two-thirds of coffee drinkers and one-third of tea drinkers put cream, sugar, half-and-half, honey, or other caloric additives in their beverages. The add-ins provided an average of an extra 69 calories per day for coffee drinkers and 43 extra calories per day for tea drinkers; a majority of these calories came from sugar. Getting 69 calories from your coffee every day may not seem like much, but, over the course of a year, it adds up to more than 25,000 calories, and 43 calories every day adds up to more than 15,000 calories in a year’s time.
Type of Heart Fat Linked With Increased Heart Disease Risk
Two types of fat surround the heart: Epicardial fat, the fat that directly covers the heart tissue, is between the outside of the heart and the pericardium, the sac that encases the heart, and paracardial fat is outside the pericardium. Among postmenopausal women, having more paracardial fat has been linked with a higher risk of having coronary artery calcification (CAC)—a condition that reflects a higher risk of heart disease—as well as a greater amount of CAC, according to study results published online Jan. 29, 2017 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Women who are postmenopausal and who have lower levels of estriadol, one form of estrogen, have a greater volume of paracardial fat than women who are premenopausal and/or have high estriadol levels.
Three Pain Relievers Have Similar Cardiovascular Risks
Celecoxib (Celebrex) is a COX-2 inhibitor that is an effective pain reliever for many patients who have arthritis. However, celecoxib’s safety became a concern when research showed that it increased risks of cardiovascular events (heart attack and stroke). Now, researchers who conducted a 10-year trial that compared three common pain relievers used by arthritis patients have found that celecoxib has cardiovascular risks similar to, and slightly lower than, two other medications. The occurrence of cardiovascular events was 2.3 percent in the celecoxib group, compared to 2.5 percent in the naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox) group and 2.7 percent in the ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) group. Celecoxib also was associated with a lower risk of gastrointestinal side effects than naproxen and ibuprofen. Drug doses used in the study were 100 milligrams (mg) of celecoxib twice a day, 600 mg of ibuprofen three times a day, or 375 mg of naproxen twice a day. The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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