CRUSH your workout with coffee and stave off multiple sclerosis too...

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Yesterday I was so excited to tell you about Mountie’s that I forgot to share the latest health benefit that I just discovered---a long-term benefit related to coffee’s neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory properties.

Drinking coffee over a period of years decreases the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurological disease in which the immune system attacks the protective coating of the nerves. Total risk reduction based on two large-scale studies---one in the U.S. and the other in Sweden, is about 30%, but the magic number to attain that benefit is six cups of coffee a day.



The connection between coffee and MS makes sense, given the well-established connection between increased coffee consumption and decreased risk of Parkinson’s disease.

Long-term benefits are great, but sometimes instant gratification is what we all want. You can instant benefits from drinking black coffee (no milk/no sugar), according to Men’s Fitness. Long story short: Coffee can help you CRUSH your workouts. How?

Studies show that drinking coffee before a workout not only revs you up to go longer, harder and stronger---but it also increases your metabolism, because the coffee prompts your body to rely on fat cells for energy, rather than glycogen, the body’s normal default source of energy.

Pre-workout coffee also decreases muscle soreness during weight training, so you can do more reps, with higher weights. The net effect of adding coffee to your workout is being more fit, and ultimately having a better body.

But I would argue that the long-term benefits of coffee are even more important than the short-term benefits, though they are all interrelated. The long-term benefits---decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, liver cancer, and of course, Parkinson’s and MS add up to something wonderful---a potentially longer, higher quality life.



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