A morning caffeine fix might do more than perk you up – it could save your life.
Women who drink more than a cup of coffee a day can lower their risk of having a stroke by 25 per cent, research shows.
Those with little or no coffee intake, however, are more likely to suffer from the condition.
The findings are the latest to challenge a common belief that coffee is bad for people’s health.
Scientists stress they have yet to prove it reduces stroke risk, but their work could have major public health implications.
Researcher Dr Susanna Larsson, of the National Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, said coffee was one of the most widely consumed drinks in the world.
Coffee
‘Therefore, even small health effects of substances in coffee may have large public health consequences,’ she said.
Although it is too soon to recommend coffee as a health drink, the findings should ease the minds of women concerned about drinking too much, added Dr Larsson.
‘Some women have avoided consuming coffee because they have thought it is unhealthy,’ she said.
‘In fact, increasing evidence indicates that moderate coffee consumption may decrease the risk of some diseases such as diabetes, liver cancer and possibly stroke.’
Her team’s study followed the diet and health of nearly 35,000 women aged 49 to 83 over a decade.
It showed that those who reported drinking at least one cup a day had a 22 per cent to 25 per cent lower risk of stroke than those who drank less.
This could be because coffee reduces inflammation and improves insulin sensitivity, the team suggested.
It also contains anti-oxidants which is known to prevent disease.
Factors such as whether the volunteers smoked, how much alcohol they consumed and weight were taken into account. Although they did not specify if they drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee, the latter is not common in Sweden.
A previous study showed that male smokers who drink coffee are less likely to suffer from strokes.
Other research on the links between coffee and health have produced contradictory results.
Some suggest high doses of caffeine can increase blood pressure.
However, others show that coffee reduces the risk of cancers of the pancreas, colon, brain, mouth and throat.
Last year, researchers found that high doses of caffeine boost an athlete’s ability to run marathons or cycle long distances.
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Women who drink coffee could be protecting themselves against an aggressive form of breast cancer, research suggests.
Those who regularly enjoy the hot drink are far less likely to develop oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer – particularly if they drink five cups or more a day.
These types of tumours do not react to a wide range of drugs, meaning chemotherapy is often the only option.
In the study, experts from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found coffee drinkers had a lower incidence of breast cancer than women who rarely drank the beverage.
They analysed data from almost 6,000 women who were past the menopause.
Those women who drank five or more cups a day had a 57 per cent reduced risk of breast cancer compared with those who drank less than one cup a day.
Writing in the journal Breast Cancer Research, the scientists concluded: ‘A high daily intake of coffee was found to be associated with a statistically significant decrease in oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer among post-menopausal women.’
The authors also found a small reduced risk for all types of breast cancer, although this link was not significant when factors such as age and weight were taken into account.
Previous studies have suggested coffee cuts the risk of other cancers, including those targeting the prostate and liver.
However, experts are divided on the benefits of coffee and some studies have shown it could even promote cancer. Research has suggested coffee may in fact cause cells to proliferate or prevent them from being repaired.
The Karolinska Institute experts said they suspected coffee could contain compounds that affect different types of breast cancer in different ways. It is possible that the drink fuels oestrogen-receptor positive breast cancers but reduces the risk of oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer, they said.
This would match the finding that drinking coffee could reduce the risk of breast cancer overall, although the experts said further studies were needed.
It comes as a separate U.S. study found that parsley and some fruits and nuts contain a compound which could prevent breast cancer cells multiplying.
Researchers from the Missouri University found that rats with breast cancer given apigenin, which is found in parsley, celery, apples, oranges and nuts, ‘developed fewer tumours and experienced significant delays in tumour formation’ compared with rats with breast cancer who were not.
Researchers have discovered two genes in which variation affects intake of caffeine, the most widely consumed stimulant in the world.
A team of investigators from the National Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women”s Hospital, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined genetic variation across the entire genome of more than 47,000 individuals from the U.S.
The genes identified were CYP1A2, which has previously been implicated in the metabolism of caffeine, and AHR, involved in the regulation of CYP1A2. Individuals with the highest-consumption genotype for either gene consumed ~40 mg more caffeine than those with the lowest-consumption genotype, equivalent to the amount of 1/3 cup of caffeinated coffee, or 1 can of cola.
Caffeine is implicated in numerous physiological and medical conditions; it affects sleep patterns, energy levels, mood, and mental and physical performance. The identification of genes that have an impact on daily consumption offers opportunities to better understand these conditions. Further exploration of the identified genetic variants may provide insight into the speed of caffeine metabolism, how long caffeine circulates in the blood, or how strong the physiological effects of consuming a given amount of caffeine are.
Apart from smoking, genetic determinants of lifestyle behaviors have generally not been consistently described. This study is among the first to examine the entire genome for a relationship between genetics and caffeine intake. The study”s success also suggests that additional genetic determinants of dietary and lifestyle behaviors may be identified in the future using a similar genome–based research strategy.
The study has been described in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.