If you have trouble starting your day without a kick from caffeine, you’re not alone.  Estimates vary, but one study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine puts the number of Americans regularly using caffeine between 80 to 90 percent.

For most healthy adults, caffeine presents no serious problems when consumed in the moderate amounts found in coffee or soft drinks.  It’s when the caffeine content starts creeping upward that potential dangers of the drug can become reality.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cited Monster Energy, a highly-caffeinated energy drink, as potentially having contributed to the deaths of five people over the last three years, including a 14-year-old Maryland teen who died in December from a heart arrhythmia after drinking large quantities of the drink.

Then, last week, the FDA released reports that possibly connect Monster Energy and another brand, 5-Hour Energy, to 13 deaths since 2009.

For their part, the companies deny any connection between their product and the deaths.  And as the Boston Globe’s Karen Weintraub points out: the FDA reports don’t firmly link the deaths to the energy products; the reports simply mean consumers consumed the beverages before they became ill.

Furthermore, experts are still trying to determine how much caffeine is too much, and how the drug compounds existing problems in the body or creates new ones, if it does that at all.

We’re talking cats here.

People love their pets. Some people love their pets to an almost excessive amount. But when you consider the fact that owning a pet can add years to your life, a cat can quickly seem like a smart investment.

According to a study that followed more than 4,000 cat owners, led by executive director of the Minnesota Stroke Institute at the University of Minnesota, Adnan Qureshi, M.D., the presence of cats results in a significantly lower risk of death by heart attack or stroke.

Cat owners “appeared to have a lower rate of dying from heart attacks” over 10 years of follow-up compared to feline-free folk, Qureshi said in an interview with U.S. News.

The 30 percent reduction in heart attack risk “was a little bit surprising,” he added. “We certainly expected an effect, because we thought that there was a biologically plausible mechanism at work. But the magnitude of the effect was hard to predict.”

This may not come as a surprise to cat owners who have experienced the unconditional love a feline companion can offer, but, cats, by nature, can alleviate stress and anxiety, which has the potential to reduce the risk of heart attack.

Although this type of companionship can potentially help you live longer, it does have a serious risk of cute overload.