Is there no end to this versatile medication? (I’m sipping my usual double espresso in an artisan coffee shop as I write this).

It seems drinking coffee instead of water may restore normal bowel function more quickly among people who have had surgery to remove part of their colon,

That’s according to a study at the University Hospital Heidelberg, in Germany. Researchers also found that these patients were able to tolerate solid food sooner after their operation than people who didn’t drink coffee.

Participants were divided into two groups: those who drank coffee and those who drank water after colon surgery. The patients were given 100 milliliters (about half a cup) of coffee or water at three different times during the day.

Coffee drinkers took slightly more than 60 hours to make their first bowel movement after surgery, the study found. Water drinkers, on the other hand, took 74 hours.

The coffee group also tolerated solid food in just more than 49 hours after surgery. The water drinkers took 56 hours to do the same. The coffee drinkers were also able to pass wind within 41 hours after surgery compared with 46 hours for water drinkers.

The study was published in the November issue of the surgical journal BJS.

I’m only going to mention it briefly, as part of the ongoing unfolding of certain remarkable benefits for coffee, including protection from heart disease, dementia and possibly even cancer.

None of my subscribers, I hope will ever need bowel surgery.

Remember my usual caveat: this is about coffee (the bean). It does NOT apply to lattes, cappuccinos, mochas and the schlocky death-dealing junk you buy at Café Nero, Starbuck’s, Costa etc.

Just pure espresso.

Yes, and stay off instants too. They are made by grounding the whole bean, so you get all kinds of resins and chemicals that are not water-soluble. Espresso extracts only certain water-soluble chemicals and clearly they are what give the benefit.

[SOURCE: BJS, news release, Oct. 9, 2012]