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Making coffee - Source: ONE News
People who drink the most coffee and tea, even decaffeinated
versions, can dramatically lower their risk of diabetes,
researchers reported.
Their study does not answer why this might be but strengthens the
findings of earlier studies showing the beverages may prevent
type-2 diabetes.
"Every additional cup of coffee consumed in a day was associated
with a seven percent reduction in the excess risk of diabetes,"
Rachel Huxley of The University of Sydney in Australia and an
international team of colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal
Medicine.
This meant that people who drank three to four cups a day had a 25%
lower risk of developing diabetes than those who drank little or no
tea or coffee.
Huxley's team did what is known as a meta-analysis, taking a look
at smaller published studies to add up greater numbers of people to
show patterns more clearly.
They looked at 18 different studies covering more than 450,000
people.
The trend was clear, but the reasons were not.
"Because most of the studies included in this review did not
provide data on the effects of these beverages or their components
on measures of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and insulin
sensitivity, we cannot provide further evidence on the mechanisms
involved," they wrote.
For instance, the research did not show whether people who drank
more coffee were eating or drinking less unhealthy stuff.
"Our findings suggest that any protective effects of coffee and tea
are unlikely to be solely effects of caffeine, but rather, as has
been speculated previously, they likely involve a broader range of
chemical constituents present in these beverages, such as
magnesium, lignans, and chlorogenic acids," the researchers wrote,
citing other studies.
Coffee has been shown to be a major source of antioxidants in the
US diet.
These compounds can prevent damage to cells.
The findings could be significant - the International Diabetes
Federation projects that by 2025, 380 million people worldwide
could have type 2 diabetes, which is associated with overeating and
a lack of exercise.
In North America, 10.2% of the adult population has diabetes and
India alone has 50.8 million diabetics.
Diabetes drugs are a multibillion dollar market but none has shown real use as a way to prevent the disease.
