10 Companies Changing the Future of Healthcare

I have yet to hear of an industry that hasn't been massively disrupted by technology. Healthcare is no stranger to this disruption. The question is which companies will actually break through the barrier and solve some of the major issues healthcare faces today?

Major trends are becoming anything but, nowadays. Think precision or personalized medicine, genomic testing, diagnostic mobile apps and wearable devices, to name a few. But the powerhouses behind these innovations and new approaches to healthcare are what will bring them to fruition and to the masses.

Globally, there are organizations aiming to achieve just this. The question is, can they? Healthcare issues tend to get really complicated really fast, even in your dinner party conversations with family and friends. Can anyone solve these issues or bring innovative possibilities to life? Well, here are 10 companies changing the future of healthcare. Who will succeed?

You decide.

1. Google: Let's start with the giant on everyone's mind. Google has announced, began, and eluded major initiatives often behind their semi-secret division Google X, dedicated to making major technological advancements. Inside Google X is a special sector dedicated to medicine called Google Life Sciences. This small but fast-growing effort led by top physicians and researchers is looking to use data to help prevent people from getting sick rather than just treat sick people. From building a new robotic surgery platform in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson to genome storage, Google is arguably the biggest player. The reason? Google owns all of our information. Yes, you and me. Our searchers, our conversations, our email. Think about it. If they find a sweet spot of ensuring the privacy of our data but leveraging it to further health technology, Google may be able to affect changes in major areas of medicine and disease such as a cancer-detecting pill, Smart contact lens for diabetic patients, and even a medical record open sharing platform.

2. IBM: There's no denying IBM's a major disruptor for healthcare. Watson, the supercomputer designed to mimic how human cognition works (hence, how we learn), holds major promise to improve health care, administration and even more critically, cancer treatment. IBM began rolling this out to the medical world through insurance provider WellPoint and Memorial Sloan Kettering. Watson is currently diving deep into understanding how cancer is treated today from the world's expert oncologists. Watson has the ability to memorize the data of thousands of studies and trials. What could this do? It has the potential to provide healthcare professionals significant patient care improvements using artificial intelligence and sharing that information with the click of a button.

3. Beijing Genomics Institute: This genome-sequencing powerhouse is what made DNA sequencing mass-market. The Institute invested in more cutting-edge-sequencing hardware, bringing to life the ability train analysts on making sense of reams of data output. It's become a go-to destination for scientists all over the world seeking to collaborate on ambitious projects to unlock the mysteries of plant, animal and human DNA. The Institute has become the most prolific research body to sequence human genomes. It has vastly reduced the cost of genome sequencing from $3 billion to a few thousand today. Genome sequencing is what has led to the discovery of genetic testing for cancer and other chronic diseases. Their goal is to organize all of the world's biological information available and even further, make it useful and accessible for further research and innovation. Think of it as a biological Google.

4. Medivation: Here is a company focused on finding new therapies for chronic diseases such as cancer. Based in San Francisco, one of the company's drug products, Xtandi, has been shown to extend the lives of men living with advanced stages of prostate cancer. They tackle some of the most serious diseases that currently have limited treatment options. Diseases include breast cancer and prostate cancer, two of the most common cancers in men and women. This biopharmaceutical research entity hopes to provide sound treatments to patients with otherwise critical illnesses.

5. Partners Healthcare: A non-for-profit integrated health care system based in Boston, Partners has invested more than $1 billion a year in drug discovery, genetics and healthcare information technology. This large investment has made it one of the top research organizations in the world. Alongside that, Partners is affiliated with some of the best hospitals in the country including Massachusetts General. The company is working to take the lead on genomic advances in the field of personalized medicine.

6. Counsyl: A health tech start-up, Counsyl is focused solely on genetic testing. Their goal? They want to focus on helping patients make more knowledgeable decisions about their lives. Currently, Counsyl provides genetic counselors to help clients interpret their individual test results and evaluate a possible prevention plan. This ties back to personalized medicine. If an individual understands their individual genetic makeup, new doors open for better treatment plans and even preventing diseases before they develop.

They currently offer three screening tests:

• Family Prep Screen

• Provides future parents with information about their genes that could pass on to their children

• Gives clear answers even before conception

• Informed Pregnancy Screen

• A test that gives accurate information after conception

• Inherited Cancer Screen

• Informs adults on their risks for developing breast, prostate, ovarian and pancreatic cancer

• Provides knowledge to further support getting screened earlier or more frequently, or in extreme cases undergo preventive surgeries

7. Medisafe: About half of all Americans are prescribed medication they take regularly. And what's more, half of them don't even take it properly, whether it's forgetting, missing or taking too much of said medication. Medisafe is aiming to solve that problem. A new app from the MediSafe Project actually makes taking whatever your prescribed medication safer, more efficient and even fun, given the integration of gamification user design into the app. Medisafe is a mobile medication management platform that reminds patients to take their medications via smartphones and tablets, serving to improve medication adherence rates and curb the growing annual healthcare costs globally. Think of it as your virtual pillbox that set reminders for when to take your pills, requiring a scan of the medicine's barcode at each dose. If the patient forgets, a family member or friend will get an alert as part of the setup of the app. Medisafe is one of the leading companies leveraging wireless and cloud technology to improve drug adherence. Last year, MediSafe revealed that Type 2 diabetic users of its technology boasted adherence rates of at least 26 percent higher than standard rates for long-term therapies.

8. Blueprint Health: This co-working space located in SoHo brings medical entrepreneurs together with innovative ideas and couples them with venture capitalists and mentors to help further their idea. It's arguably the premier health care incubator on the East Coast and even in the United States. Those who graduate from Blueprint have started many diverse companies and healthcare disruptors such as AdhereTech -- the smart pill-bottle maker. Other graduates are focused on IT solutions to improve the efficiency of doctors, hospitals and outcomes for patient care.

9. Ginger.IO: This mobile app tracks behavioral data to improve care. They analyze patterns in communication and location through algorithms designed to alert caregivers of changes that may indicate new symptoms or an emergency. To date, they've collected more than 6 million data points from patients which will help the company's technology improve as the customer base grows.

10. Foundation Medicine: This genomic leader was one of the first to demonstrate that the age of personalized cancer treatment has started. Their first clinical product titled "FoundationOne" is one of the first genomic tests that analyzes DNA mutations in tumors. It works to assist doctors in matching specific drugs to specific cancer types, or help doctor's direct patients to ongoing clinical trials for experimental treatments. Foundation's innovative tests may expand to assist drug makers in creating more effective therapies. The company is backed by Google Ventures and Third Rock Ventures and this year alone raised $106 million in an IPO.

The Dirty 6: Watch Out for these Ingredients

Let's start with the problem. The problem today is obesity and diabetes are on the rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one-third of American adults are obese. The American Diabetes Association estimates that 29.1 million Americans have diabetes and 86 million Americans ages 20+ have pre-diabetes. What's more, metabolic syndrome affects about one in three U.S. adults, according to a JAMA Study published in May 2015.

Why is this happening? In one word, our food. In two words, processed foods.

Food makers have adopted processed production methods over the last 30 years and consumers have welcomed them with open arms. Processed foods are packaged -- be it boxed, bagged, canned or jarred -- and processed using methods like dehydration, refrigeration, freezing and canning. If there's a laundry list of ingredients on the back of the packaging, rest assured it's been processed. Processed foods have to make up for a loss of nutrients. How do they do this? Healthy nutrients are replaced with synthetic vitamins and minerals to "enhance" the nutritional value of the food.

As a result, our taste buds become acclimated to the incredibly strong flavors of processed foods and even further, increase our cravings for more salt and sugar on whole or raw foods.

This leaves us to where we are today. We really don't know how to eat healthy or even where to begin. The truth is we barely understand the foods we eat and we don't invest enough time to learn. The book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser brought to light many of the facts about fast food and processed food and according to his research, about 90 percent of the average American's budget is allocated towards processed foods.

Why We Eat Processed Foods

Convenience seems to be the major reason for the high consumption of processed foods. The problem has surmounted to be about time. Who has hours upon hours to spend in the grocery store aisle analyzing nutritional labels, ingredient lists and Googling what they are, to then return home, prepare a meal without a lot of additives and actually enjoy the meal they end up with? The culture of food in America has changed in the last 30 years and we need to reverse it.

Eating a diet high in processed foods has been shown to lead to diabetes, according to a PNAS study from 2012, and liver disease, not to mention these foods increase cholesterol and blood pressure -- all proponents of heart disease.

Did you know the FDA doesn't require food makers to disclose every ingredient or additive, for consideration and full review, if the manufacturer deems the ingredient GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe), a 57-year-old regulatory law from the FDA. This means if this standard is "met" or "claimed," food makers get away scot-free from the FDA, especially if no immediate evidence exists proving the harm of the ingredient. Some synthetic chemicals injected into processed foods are known to have carcinogenic properties, promoting the development of cancer. The World Health Organization believes processed foods are to blame for the spike in obesity levels and chronic disease globally.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

High fructose corn syrup is a common sweetener added to sodas, fruit-flavored drinks, breakfast cereals, cookies, cakes and salad dressings. There are many differing opinions on understanding if the body metabolizes HFCS in the same way it does regular white sugar. Regardless, too much of this additive can contribute to unwanted calories that have been linked to weight gain, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and high triglyceride levels, which all can boost the risk of heart disease, obesity, cancer, dementia and liver failure. A significant 2014 study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine showed that eating too much added sugar may raise the risk of dying from heart disease, even if you aren't overweight.

Refined White Flour

When flour is refined, about 14 vitamins, 10 minerals and proteins are cut from the natural state of the product. Sometimes you'll see "enriched white flour" in the ingredient list. Don't be deceived, this only adds about four vitamins to the product. White flour is chemically bleached and leaves behind a residue that is consumed. These chemical residues are also what help to develop gluten, which some people suffer allergies towards. Bleached white flour can be found in breakfast cereals, pasta, pizza, baked goods and breads. In order to process these refined foods, the body actually pulls the vitamins, minerals and enzymes consumed from healthy food sources out of the organs, tissues and bones. A diet rooted in eating foods with white flour can also lead to chronic fatigue syndrome. Refined white flour also has a higher glycemic index -- a measurement of how fast sugar is released in the blood -- which at a level of 100 means sugar is being released faster and in a greater amount, leading to Hyperglycemia. On a simpler note, once all of this stripped away, white flour is a starch and your body is likely to store these refined carbohydrates as fat, contributing to obesity. Look for "enriched flours" or "refined flours" on the packaging; this indicates white, bleached flour.

Refined Sugar

Ahh, refined sugar or commonly known as white (granulated) sugar, perhaps the most deadly ingredient on this list. It's nearly impossible to remove sugar completely from our diet, since it's naturally found in most foods. But refined sugars can directly impact an individual's risk for obesity and other chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. These sugars can be found in almost every processed food from baked foods, to boxed macaroni and cheese. The average American consumes approximately one-third of a pound of sugar each day, translating into nearly 130 pounds of sugar per person every year.

Artificial Sweeteners

Think Splenda, Sweet n' Low or Equal, more substantial evidence has been uncovered about the harms of artificial sweeteners in the last five years than ever before. Earlier this year, PepsiCo announced they would no longer use aspartame in their Diet Pepsi product. Aspartame, a popular artificial sweetener, has long been a controversial ingredient, even though the FDA claims it's one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives. Well, a number of studies have shown that aspartame in particular along with other sweeteners are linked to some of the most debilitating diseases including heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, cancer, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Over 6,000 food and drink products contain it, often hidden under labels marked "diet" or "sugar-free." Even with substantial evidence, artificial sweeteners remain popular among dieters and even diabetic patients looking for a sweet fix. But research speculates that when we consume sugar substitutes, the body expects to see a surge in glucose and when this expectation is not met, we continue to crave sweets, consuming food until the craving is met.

Synthetic Trans Fats

Last week, the FDA announced a three-year deadline for all food makers to eliminate synthetic trans-fat or "partially hydrogenated oils" from their products. These oils are the key source of trans fatty acids in the American diet. As a result, medical experts are rejoicing since major bodies of evidence exist that show an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer from heavy consumption of these fats. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,trans fats are found naturally in animal fats but PHOs are found in baked goods. Food makers have used these for many years because they're inexpensive and extend the food's shelf life. The problem? Artificial trans fat raise low-density lipoprotein or LDL (the bad cholesterol), which is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, the number one cause of death in America. The CDC projects eliminating these fats could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths per year.

MSG

Topping the charts of dangerous additives is MSG or monosodium glutamate. The good news is many studies have been done on its effect on the body. This additive is not just in your Chinese food, but added to thousands of the foods you eat, especially prevalent in processed foods. MSG overstimulates our nervous system, exciting the nerves, causing inflammation -- a massive proponent for cancer. One 2013 study showed rats who ate MSG experienced a 40 percent increase in their appetite. In 2011, researchers at the University of North Carolina found that both men and women who ate the most MSG (an average of 5 grams per day) were 30 percent more likely to become overweight.

Our food culture in America needs a lot of reform. Bottom line, we need to spend more time on educating ourselves about the ingredients in our foods. In a perfect world, processed foods would be cut from our diet completely, but it's not that simple. Who loves dining out? We all do and how do we know what in those foods? Many questions remain along with differing opinions, but one fact remains, these six ingredients among thousands of others are not natural. They're designed to withstand long periods of time on a shelf regardless of temperature; how can we expect our bodies to break them down? We can't. Ask more questions when it comes to the foods on your grocery list. When you're about to eat that cracker or cookie, ask yourself, "What's in this?" and "Do I need it?" Be your own advocate when it comes to the food choices you make.

HIIT: Challenge Your Body with This Workout

Even patients who've experienced heart failure achieved greater cardiovascular benefits from aerobic interval training

Over the last decade, interval training has been believed to be the best workout for most people. As the go-to fitness routine, interval training improves strength and endurance over moderate-intensity steady-state cardiovascular exercise. Study after study has shown that interval training, particularly high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the gold standard for rapid results in speed, strength and endurance, be it from running, cycling, weight training or using cardio machines at your gym. High intensity interval training is defined as alternating between high and low intensity exercises or between high intensity exercise and a short period of rest. Try running up a flight of stairs and walking back down. That’s HIIT.

High-intensity interval training is all the rage for total body fitness. Think home workout videos like Insanity, CrossFit and other boot camp-style classes. People have seen amazing results from this approach and by the way, this approach is not just for advanced fitness. Just getting started? This may be the best approach to try. Physiologically, this workout approach makes sense because it’s impossible to sustain maximal intensities during exercise for a long period of time, simply because of how our bodies use fuel. Oxygen is really the molecule that makes the magic.

The supply and demand of it in and out of the body is what determines how much maximal intensity you will achieve and for how long. Your body cannot get oxygen where it needs to go fast enough. Think this is inefficient? Well, that’s why HIIT is the ticket. The flow of how oxygen enters and exits the body allows for us to produce short bursts of speed or high energy. There’s a simple method to try HIIT for just 20-30 minutes. The format is simple, designed and tested by researchers from the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.

Enter”10-20-30”, an interval-training concept which resulted in remarkable advances in fitness. Photo Wikimedia Commons. The researchers used 18 moderately-trained runners for a seven-week program of 10-20-30 training and found that they were able to improve performance on a 1,500-meter run by 23 seconds and almost by a minute on a 5-km run—and this despite a 50 percent reduction in their typical amount of training time. Studies that date back to 2007 show that even patients who’ve experienced heart failure achieved greater cardiovascular benefits from aerobic interval training. So how do you do this 10-20-30 thing? Pick a cardio exercise where you can watch a timer. Warm up for a few minutes, then perform 10 seconds at a high-intensity effort. From there, follow up with 20 seconds at moderate-intensity effort, then go for another 30 seconds at an easy comfortable effort level.

You’ll notice it takes one minute to complete each cycle. Work this pattern for 5 consecutive minutes and feel free to take a 2-minute recovery break between each 5-minute cycle. Try to complete 3-4 blocks of these 5-minute rounds. That’s all there is too it. For anyone yearning for a simple workout approach but doesn’t know where to start, HIIT is for you. Try it.

Genetic Blueprints and the Rise of Epigenetics

Healthcare and medicine is living through a major transformation. We’re entering into a new era of medicine where prevention precedes treatment. Now this idea, believe it or not, is quite new. Of course, prevention is always the ideal, but sadly the healthcare sector has been programmed to curing the problem, rather than erasing the problem before it ever happens. Now, thanks in part to genomic sequencing and all that science has learned and continues to, doctors and healthcare professionals are moving towards a preventive attitude and passing this type of thinking onto their patients. I’ve often said that as doctors, we’re forced to give disease care versus health care. Focusing on health care, means we focus on prevention from the beginning of life. Here’s what I mean.

Genomic Sequencing: Where It All Began

Once upon a time, $3 billion was the magic number that brought the full sequencing of a human genome to life. Today, it has decreased to just a few thousand dollars and continues to become more cost-effective. Genomic sequencing reveals the secrets our genes keep from us. So how is this actually done? Less than a teaspoon of blood or saliva samples are collected from the patient. From there, chemicals are applied to the sample in order to break open the cell membranes and gather the DNA housed inside of them. Sophisticated machines analyze these sequences for about 2-3 months to find what essentially the errors are across the 20,000 genes we all possess.

Mapping Your Genetic Blueprint

Genes are often referred to as the blueprint for life. Here’s a simplified lesson in basic genetics; all of your body’s cells contain chromosomes or packages of DNA strands. DNA holds the map of your genes. As humans, we have 46 total chromosomes in 23 matched pairs and each pair contains one from our mother and one from our father. This is why family history largely determines your genetic destiny or which conditions you may be at risk for, especially when it comes to cancer. Every cell in your body contains your complete genetic blueprint or a map of your genes.

What genome sequencing has created is further discovery on what actually makes us unique from another individual. Behavioral genes are on the road to being discovered that identify why some people need less sleep, how likely we are to respond to exercise and how good we are at learning and memorizing, to even how confident we are.

So, where does this map lead to?

The Rise of Epigenetics

All this human genome sequencing, what are we to do with it? Enter the field of Epigenetics or the study of how biological traits are affected by environmental factors. This approach touches so many parts of how we live and the habits that go along with that lifestyle. Epigenetics studies gene expression and how the epigenome (chemical compounds that signal genes to operate) and how it influences DNA. We all know half of our genes come from our father and the other half from our mother. Even with this knowledge, many people fail to fully understand their family history. The expression of genes and how they regulate inflammation and immune function are under your control depending on the toxins or nutrients you're putting in your body.

Epigenetics looks at how our lifestyle can not only affect our genetic makeup but can be passed on to our children and grandchildren. Yes, it’s true some of your genetic makeup may in fact be a result of some of your ancestor’s lifestyle choices.

By looking at inflammatory markers. Inflammation gets to the heart of what many of us are destined to develop, which are chronic diseases. In cancer alone, it has increased from 1 in 3 to 1 in 2 people who will develop the disease worldwide.

Inflammation is often due to consuming processed foods, fast foods, white sugar, white flour and heat damaged oils. These foods turn on numerous genes that promote inflammation causing cancer, heart disease. Inflammation often begins in the gut, destroying gut bacteria that releases inflammatory chemicals that produce inflammation promoting cancer throughout the body.

Simple lifestyle changes can fight this. But Epigenetics is what discovered this.

Health Care Vs Disease Care

As a doctor, disease care seems to be what health care has transformed into. What few people focus on is preventing these diseases before they ever even happen. Now this ties in many arguments on how we raise our children and the health habits we instill in their lives early on, but regardless of all that, studying our genes closer has sparked a preventive attitude. Existing evidence does show that experience in our early lives are linked to health and behavioral outcomes in the future but the ways in which these experiences make a difference are not yet fully understood. What can we really learn from our genes? Prevention. Prevent what’s coming and make those changes now.

Real-World Examples of Virtual Reality in Healthcare

There was a time when virtual reality seemed like a thing far away in the future or a recent science fiction movie we had seen but now it’s becoming more real and consumer friendly each day. The smartphone has created this accessibility of virtual reality. One of the most impactful ways virtual reality can be carried out in our society is through healthcare.

A growing number of health professionals including doctors and researchers are showing data showing the efficiency around virtual and augmented reality which grew from $525 million in 2012 to an estimated $976 million in 2017, according to Kalorama research report.

From treating pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, smoking cessation and even the dentist appointment you have to do every 6 months, virtual reality is showing promise and progress across healthcare. Here are a few real-world use case scenarios where VR could change the game.

1. Surgical Training

Educating current and potential physicians is conducted the traditional way through books, tests, pens and paper. Advocates of virtual reality believe this can all be changed around medical education especially when it comes to surgical training.

A few innovators are offering a different option for training around surgery, often done at only a few centers around the country using expensive artificial body parts. Osso VR, provides software that makes a virtual operating room on platforms for virtual reality like Oculus Rift/Touch or HTC Vive. Practicing surgery using VR brings more surgeons to get in more reps specifically on complex surgeries.

Osso VR, which just raised $2 million, provides software that creates a virtual operating room on VR platforms like Oculus Rift/Touch or the HTC Vive. Practicing surgeries in virtual reality allows surgeons to get in more reps, particularly on complicated procedures.

2. Pain Management

Virtual reality can affect pain management which hurts so many Americans and Cedars Sinai’s VR program is tackling this exact issue. Dr. Brennan Spiegel and his colleagues are experimenting with using VR to escape the “bio-psycho-social” isolation of living with pain or chronic pain. They use a headset to help patients manage pain and it’s been tested with 300 patients so far. Think managing chronic pain, depression, anxiety and even hypertension.

You can read more about Spiegel’s efforts at Cedars Sinai here and here.

3. Patient Education

Cedars Sinai is also partnering with Holman United Methodist Church in south LA on a community health education initiative aimed at reducing hypertension in a vulnerable population.

This educational program is bigger than VR but currently members use a VR program that takes them into a virtual kitchen where foods are labelled with their sodium content then taking them inside the body to show a visualization of what hypertension does to the heart. They then created a relaxation app to help members deal with stress which also contributes to hypertension.

4. Clinician Education

Text books and 2D anatomical images aren’t the only way doctors learn about common diseases and drugs. A New Jersey-based drug development company are focused on gastrointestinal conditions that were developed during an interactive VR platform to guide clinicians through an open-minded approach to treatment.  

5. Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation

Virtual reality enhances 3D motion tracking cameras that currently track and gamify movement which could affect how patients are trained to bring back their mobility from physical therapy. Patients could potentially be sent home with exercises that motive them and simultaneously collect hard data on things like motion. And they could do this in the comfort of the own home, not just at the PT appointment once a week - potentially speeding up recovery.

On the backend, a physical therapist can see data collected through the device and can change the parameters of the game on the fly in order to guide the patient to the most beneficial exercise.

6. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD continues to be an area where researchers are trying to understand how to treat it. It’s one of the most pervasive mental health conditions in the U.S. and continues to be the most challenging to treat. Exposure therapy is what many professionals want to move treatment to and VR allows them to provide that exposure in a physically controlled and safe environment.  

Anything could trigger an episode in which the person with PTSD is transported back to the moment the traumatic event or events happened. It seems counterintuitive to purposely put a PTSD sufferer back in that place, but experts say using virtual reality creates a world where people with the condition can exert control over the situation, therefore experiencing a sense of resolution.

New Reports Show More Evidence of Coffee’s Health Benefits

Two new studies continue to prove why coffee is a good idea (most days and in reasonable moderation.)

Research noted this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal showed significant correlation between coffee and being in good health. Two studies further suggested the more coffee you drink, the more your risk of dying from an illness such heart disease - the number one killer of both men and women. Both decaf and caffeinated coffee had the same effect on the studies subjects.

One of the studies examined results from 185,000 people across multiple ethnicities include African Americans, Japanese Americans, Native Hawaiians, Latinos and caucasians. Their coffee consumption patterns were measured over a 16-year period layered on top of if they smoked or were currently living with an illness.

Conclusions included that greater consumption of coffee was linked to lower risk of death in all populations except Native Hawaiians, which showed no notable difference.

Those subjects that consumed 2-4 cups per day had an 18% lower risk of dying from diseases like heart disease, stroke and cancer versus those who didn’t consume the beverage.

The second study examined 520,000 people in 10 European countries over the same time period. Researchers found that coffee consumption lowered the risk for mortality, especially from digestive and circulatory diseases.

The first study did define a cup of coffee as 8 ounces but didn’t explicitly say what type of coffee it was or what was in it. Obviously drinking coffee with excessive amounts of cream and sugar can have nutritional impact but this was not identified in the study.

In most other studies regarding coffee’s health benefits, it was noted that coffee when consumed black was where the most health benefits came about.

Researchers still tout that it’s too soon to recommend endless amounts of coffee as naturally it’s a diuretic and can have an impact on energy levels being volatile but still worth considering and following this body of research as findings get consistently built upon.