Two new studies published this week are showing coffee’s effectiveness at fighting disease, though the results are surprising.

First, a team of Canadian researchers are busy presenting their findings on coffee’s effects on Lou Gehrig’s disease at the Experimental Biology conference taking place right now in New Orleans.

The study found that coffee’s antioxidant properties helped cut down on oxidative stress and cell death in male Lou Gehrig’s, or ALS, sufferers. In a series of tests on lab rats, the scientists sought to test the antioxidant properties found in coffee against the oxidative stress caused by ALS.

I wasn’t familiar with oxidative stress, but it turns out that it’s basically what happens when our cells react with free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that are produced when our bodies take in air and produce energy. We can’t help it, but these molecular baddies can cause damage to genes, membranes, and proteins within the body over time. Antioxidants help counter this process by effectively cleaning up free radicals before they can cause cellular damage.

Anyhow, the researchers found that male lab rats who were given the equivalent of five to 10 cups of coffee per day, depending on body weight, increased their antioxidant levels over female lab rats who were treated similarly.

“If we were to extrapolate these results to human patients with ALS, then coffee appears to be beneficial for men, both reducing oxidative stress and cell death, and increasing antioxidants,” said researcher Rajini Seevaratnam. “But for women, caffeine appears to be harmful. Women with the disorder may want to restrict caffeine consumption, or switch to decaffeinated products which contain the antioxidants, but with little caffeine.”

Coffee cuts reproductive cancer risk

Don’t fret, ladies. It’s not all bad news for us this week. A second study has found that coffee and tea may help lower the risk of uterine cancer.

Reuters Health reported Saturday that women who drank a few cups of coffee or tea each day saw a reduced risk of developing endometrial cancer. This is a type of cancer that attacks the lining of the uterus and is thought to be brought on by a variety of factors including age, obesity, and an overabundance of estrogen.

Researchers studied more than 1,000 women and found that females who drank four or more cups per day were half as likely to develop the disease as women who drank less coffee and tea or decaf.

While it’s not known exactly why coffee and tea are thought to cut the cancer risk, the researcher who led the study, Dr. Susan McCann of the Roswell Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, believes caffeine may be a possible answer. Caffeine has been found to induce enzymes in the body that neutralize cancer-causing substances in the body.

McCann’s team also suggested that other properties found in coffee and tea, such as flavonoids and isoflavins — both of which are antioxidant compounds – may also have had an impact on the study’s findings.

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