INTERESTING TIMES

Statistics show that the "stroke belt" is also where you have the highest likelihood (in the US) of dying of cardiovascular and lower respiratory disease (smoking), cancer and accidents. Obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome are probable causes, but what about accidents? Why do southerners have the most accidents? Bless their dangerous little hearts....

SOURCE
http://consumer.healthday.com/cardiovascular-health-information-20/heart-attack-news-357/southeastern-states-have-highest-number-of-preventable-deaths-687436.html

This study had a sample size of nearly 400,000 adults and lasted for 13 years. They had to adjust the findings for cigarette smoking, which is of course prevalent among coffee drinkers.
( notes )

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/745359?src=mp&spon=34
is a review on this study:

Wilson KM, Kasperzyk JL, Rider JR, et al. Coffee consumption and prostate cancer risk and progression in the health professionals follow-up study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2011;103:876-884. Epub 2011 May 17.

but this study
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/50/21/6836.short
found no correlation at least for survival of fatal prostate cancer, between coffee drinkers or not.

( ...and... coffee drinkers have higher testosterone! text here. video at link above. )

If you die 5 years and 1 day after a cancer diagnosis, what are you?
( notes from Dr Thom's lecture )

According to the recent study published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Research, epidemiological research suggests that moderate to high alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced overall mortality risk compared to non- and light drinkers.

Their study included over 1,800 people, aged 55 to 65 when the study began. Sixty-nine percent of the participants were men. The subjects were followed for 20 years.

Surprisingly, the group with the lowest mortality rate was moderate drinkers, who had one to three alcoholic drinks per day, followed by heavy drinkers, and then light drinkers, while non-drinkers had the highest mortality rate of them all.

Part of the theory as to why this is so has to do with the modern increase in methanol in food (and cigs), and the physiology by which ethanol helps us to process methanol. Methanol (wood alcohol) is a toxin. Mercola (the first source) offers a good rundown on a variety of possible factors, as well as some warranted warnings about the risks involved in alcohol consumption. Also it is worth noting here that the majority of study participants were male, and females have considerably more difficulty metabolizing ethanol.

SOURCES
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/09/14/why-do-heavy-drinkers-outlive-nondrinkers.aspx
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01286.x/pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19896282

( abstract of study on ethanol )

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10318410.stm

Add to this info that not everybody can use the form of B6 that is in cheap vitamins. About 1/4 of us have to buy the fancy B6 that is activated by methylation, because for genetic reasons we aren't good at methylating our own. Methylation is one of the main pathways by which your liver makes toxic lipophilic compounds water soluble so they can be excreted. B6 is key for supporting methylation, but if you can't methylate, you can't activate the B6 you get, so you MUST buy the supplement! For example, B6 is depleted in women who take birth control pills, and remains depleted for years after they stop. Just a FYI! I always have wanted to believe that I could get all the nutrition I needed from food, but I'm not so sure anymore. Considering the increasing insults of toxins and hormonally active substances in our environments, we can use all the help we can get. Provided we can figure out what is helpful and what is not. It is not so obvious....