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Showing posts from October, 2010

Bump Alert: Embracing Coffee Moderation, Confronting My Addiction and Rediscovering Coffee

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Several months ago I had to cut my coffee consumption way back. Though, on any normal day, I drink 4 to 6 cups a day, for the first few months of my pregnancy, I had to cut back, because according to the medical literature, coffee is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage. In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2007, 1063 women were followed by Dr. De-Kun Li and his colleagues. Their goal: determine whether there was a correlation between coffee intake and miscarriage. Women were divided into three categories: no caffeine; some caffeine, but less than 200 mg per day, and consumption of more than 200 mg per day. The miscarriage rate among the 200 mg-plus group was 25%, compared with 12% for the non-caffeine drinkers. So it seems that 200mg, or two cups, is the safety threshold. Note that the results were adjusted to take into consideration other risk factors. For a long time, I was in deep denial about the correlation between drinking a lo