- A large new study explores the mechanics behind the known relationship between coffee consumption and a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- The study proposes that coffee’s anti-inflammatory properties may largely be the reason for its beneficial effect.
- Coffee appears to lower pro-inflammatory biomarkers while increasing anti-inflammatory ones.
Consuming coffee is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The relationship is well-established, says a new study, but the mechanism remains unclear.
The benefit was strongest in drinkers of ground coffee — filtered or espresso — and people who do not smoke or who never have.
The study’s authors analyzed a large data set from participants in two population-based studies: the United Kingdom’s UK Biobank and the Netherlands’ Rotterdam Study.
The UK Biobank cohort included 502,536 individuals from England, Scotland, and Wales who began participating in the study between April 2006 and December 2010. They were 37 to 73 years old. In 2017, follow-up data on these individuals became available.
The Rotterdam Study, which began in 1990, is ongoing, ultimately involving 14,929 individuals. Follow-up data was released in 2015.
In the study, researchers observed changes in the levels of inflammation-related biomarkers related to type 2 diabetes.
Dr. AngĂ©lica Amato, associate professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of BrasĂlia, not involved in the current study, noted that its “main strength […] is the large number of individuals included in the cohorts, the long follow-up time, and the comprehensive assessment of inflammatory markers.”
Lead author Dr. Carolina Ochoa-Rosales, a postdoctoral scientist in nutrition and genetic epidemiology at Erasmus University Medical Centre Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, told Medical News Today that “[t]ype 2 diabetes is partly considered an inflammatory disease, and it is accepted that higher concentrations of pro-inflammatory markers in plasma constitute…
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