Slugs and coffee
There are a million and one uses for coffee – in addition to drinking the stuff, that is.
You will probably be aware of the use of coffee grounds as a sort of ‘mulch’ for gardeners (and in fact some coffee shops give their old coffee grounds to their green-fingered customers) to give their plants a bit of a boost.
However, as reported in the Independent recently, there is another use for coffee in the garden.
Slugs.
Yes, you heard right.
It has become apparent that snails and slugs are not very keen on the stuff.
Several organically-minded souls use coffee grounds as an alternative to slug pellets, to attempt to keep the creepy crawly pests at bay.
In case you are tempted to do likewise, however, please hear this note of caution.
It was also reported that using coffee in this way is in breach of EU regulations.
In fact, the Royal Horticultural Society has warned its readers of this fact.
Although the caffeine deters slugs and snails (and can kill them), this use of coffee is in contravention of European law and could result in heavy fines in principle.
Of course, in practice, there may well be significant problems in enforcing these rules but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Is there a useful relationship between caffeine and Parkinson’s?
This might seem like a strange question, but as we all know, life is often stranger than fiction.
A study has been carried out recently and it has suggested that there may indeed be a rather favourable relationship between the two.
This has been widely reported in the news.
The organisation that carried out the research project was the Research Institute of theMcGill University Health Centre.
It was suggested as a result of the study, that Parkinson’s sufferers who consume caffeine, may increase their ability to control movement.
The study has been described as one of the first to demonstrate the advantages of caffeine on motor impairment in those with the disease.
There has already been some research which has indicated that coffee-drinkers have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s, but to date, there has not been as much investigation into the clinical consequences of this observation.
Of course, the world consumes caffeine to a great extent and therefore its effects on the human body are important.
The substance works on the cardiovascular system and also the nervous system and can boost alertness on a temporary basis.
As part of the study, researchers looked at a group of 61 Parkinson’s sufferers.
Some of the group were administered a placebo, the others had a dose of caffeine twice daily for six weeks (100mg per dose for the first half of the study, rising to 200mg for the last three weeks).
Those who had the caffeine dose were noted to have improved motor symptoms than the control group.
How does coffee affect your lifespan?
Does this seem like a strange question?
Perhaps it is, but it is also the subject of a study which has been published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It was carried out by the National Institutes of Health, over a period of thirteen years and involved the assessment of over 400,000 adults of both genders, between 50 and 71 years of age.
So what were the conclusions of this investigation?