Coffee May Protect Against Diabetes
Study Shows Coffee Drinkers Have a Reduced Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes
Oct. 25, 2006 -- There is more evidence that the American love affair with coffee is helping to reduce the risk of diabetes.
Drinking caffeinated coffee was found to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 60% in a newly published study that included people at high risk for the disease.
Even those who used to drink coffee but quit were less likely to develop diabetes than those who never drank it.
The new study was published in the November issue of the journal Diabetes Care.
"Our findings were very strong," researcher Besa Smith, MPH, tells WebMD. "The next step is to pinpoint the compounds in coffee responsible for this protective effect."
The new research is not the first to find that coffee drinkers have an edge in terms of protection from diabetes.
A Finnish study, reported in 2004, suggested a 30% reduction in type 2 diabetes risk among people who drank three or four cups of coffee a day. Women in the study who drank 10 or more cups a day showed a 79% reduction in risk.
And combined results from 15 studies involving more than 200,000 participants suggested a similar protective effect. People who drank the most coffee had the lowest diabetes risk in the review, conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.
The study by Smith and colleagues from the University of California San Diego was unique because it included people at high risk for type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar levels were higher than normal.
The condition, known as impaired glucose tolerance, is considered a strong predictor of diabetes.
A total of 910 adults were followed for an average of eight years after an assessment of their coffee drinking habits was conducted. The average age of the participants was 66; 41% were men.
After adjusting for other known diabetes risk factors, the researchers concluded that both past and current drinkers of caffeinated coffee had about a 60% reduction in diabetes risk, compared with study participants who never drank coffee.
A similar reduction in risk was seen among the roughly one-third of study participants with impaired glucose tolerance.
The researchers did not exclude people who drank decaffeinated coffee from the study, but too few participated to draw conclusions.
Coffee May Protect Against Diabetes
Study Shows Coffee Drinkers Have a Reduced Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes
Oct. 25, 2006 -- There is more evidence that the American love affair with coffee is helping to reduce the risk of diabetes.
Drinking caffeinated coffee was found to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 60% in a newly published study that included people at high risk for the disease.
Even those who used to drink coffee but quit were less likely to develop diabetes than those who never drank it.
The new study was published in the November issue of the journal Diabetes Care.
"Our findings were very strong," researcher Besa Smith, MPH, tells WebMD. "The next step is to pinpoint the compounds in coffee responsible for this protective effect."
The new research is not the first to find that coffee drinkers have an edge in terms of protection from diabetes.
A Finnish study, reported in 2004, suggested a 30% reduction in type 2 diabetes risk among people who drank three or four cups of coffee a day. Women in the study who drank 10 or more cups a day showed a 79% reduction in risk.
And combined results from 15 studies involving more than 200,000 participants suggested a similar protective effect. People who drank the most coffee had the lowest diabetes risk in the review, conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.
A Unique Study
The study by Smith and colleagues from the University of California San Diego was unique because it included people at high risk for type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar levels were higher than normal.
The condition, known as impaired glucose tolerance, is considered a strong predictor of diabetes.
A total of 910 adults were followed for an average of eight years after an assessment of their coffee drinking habits was conducted. The average age of the participants was 66; 41% were men.
After adjusting for other known diabetes risk factors, the researchers concluded that both past and current drinkers of caffeinated coffee had about a 60% reduction in diabetes risk, compared with study participants who never drank coffee.
A similar reduction in risk was seen among the roughly one-third of study participants with impaired glucose tolerance.
The researchers did not exclude people who drank decaffeinated coffee from the study, but too few participated to draw conclusions.
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