Coffee May Prevent Depression

Women who drink two or more cups of coffee each day are less at risk of depression, according to a team of researchers at the Harvard Medical School. The study analyzed data from 51,000 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1996 to 2006. During that period, 2,607 cases of depression were diagnosed; women who drank two or more cups of coffee a day, however, reported 20 percent fewer cases of depression—and the risk fell with each additional cup of coffee they drank. Still, the study’s author advises women to not begin drinking more caffeine: more study is needed, he says, and very high caffeine levels can increase anxiety.