Coffee
(IN PHOTO)Cups of cappuccino sit on a table during the World Coffee Conference in Guatemala City February 26, 2010. Guatemala will produce less coffee than previously forecast in the 2009/10 season due to bad weather, increasing pressure on already tight global supplies, the head of the national growers group Anacafe said on Friday. REUTERS

A new study by researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, or UTHealth, has indicated that the men who drink at least two cups of coffee in a day are less likely to be suffering from erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction or impotence is a form of sexual dysfunction in men who have inability to develop or maintain an erect penis during any form of sexual activity. There are number of causes that lead to this inability, including low testosterone levels, cardiovascular diseases, side effect of drugs, diabetes, neurological problems, old age and hormonal imbalance or insufficiency, also known as hypogonadism.

The researchers came to the conclusion that caffeine has the ability to trigger a series of pharmacological effects which help in relaxing the helicine arteries in the penis thereby increasing the blood flow. For their study, they enrolled 3,724 men in the age group of 20 years and above who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Their consumption of coffee was taken into account along with any past or current history of erectile dysfunction.

The study findings revealed that the men who drank caffeine between 85mg and 170mg a day were 42 per cent less likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction in comparison to those who drank no coffee at all, while those who drank between 171 and 303mg of caffeine had their chances reduced by 39 per cent. According to the NHS, one cup of coffee provides 100mg of caffeine approximately.

Dr David Lopez, assistant professor at UTHealth School of Public Health and the lead author of the study published in the journal PLUS ONE, says, "Even though we saw a reduction in the prevalence of ED with men who were obese, overweight and hypertensive, that was not true of men with diabetes. Diabetes is one of the strongest risk factors for ED, so this was not surprising."This is not the only health benefit that can be credited to drinking coffee since past studies have indicated that caffeine can also decrease the risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, lower the risk of diabetes type 2 along with increasing liver function.

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