Researchers probe coffee ’s health benefits

It is dark and bitter, but is enjoyed on
most breakfast and lunch tables in many
parts of the world for its refreshing and
health benefits. Nigerian researchers have
launched a probe into what makes coffee
thick.
EXCITED by researches from Asia, America
and Europe validating the health benefits of
coffee, Nigerian researchers have come
together to probe the effects on Nigerians.
The team, Ignite Project, include a consultant
cardiologist and associate professor of
medicine at the College of Medicine
University of Lagos (CMUL)/Lagos
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr. Jane
Ajuluchukwu, consultant clinical
pharmacologist and associate professor of
medicine at CMUL/LUTH, Dr. Sunday Olayemi,
a consultant nutritional biochemist at the
Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR),
Mr. Bathlomeo Brai and the President
Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr.
Damise Temiye.
The team said that unpublished studies in
the country showed that drinking two to
three cups of coffee daily reduces painful
crisis in sickle cell patients and prevents
premature delivery when taken by
pregnant women.
The researchers said that drinking coffee
had been demonstrated to improve an
individual ’s alertness and concentration so
aiding better performance and also helping
reduce the feeling of tiredness or lethargy.
Temiye at a media event in Lagos to kick-
start the probe said: “I believe that if coffee
is not beneficial it will not still be in the
market. We want to know what happens
when the pregnant woman takes it. Will it
be beneficial? Will it prevent premature
babies? Is it given to premature babies to
live? If mother take it, will it prevent
preterm? Is it beneficial to sickle cell
patients? Will it reduce their painful crisis?
Will it help them to live a better life? We
need to make more doctors to be aware. We
need to collaborate. A lot of things we used
are medicinal. Too much of everything is
bad. There is nothing that is not of risk but
moderation is the answer. ”
Ajuluchukwu said: “We are doing our own
study in Nigeria and not hoping on what is
happening in Finland. We want to do a
study to know whether being a Nigerian or
being in Nigeria will change the equation.
“Coffee has been linked to lower risk of
brain tumour. There is something coffee
does to bad cholesterol to make it impotent
and not able to carry out its bad work. It is
good in preventing diabetes. ”
Ajuluchukwu said that coffee was one of
the most widely researched ingredients and
the growing body of scientific research
shows that coffee, when drunk in
moderation- four to five regular size cups a
day- is safe for healthy adults and can even
have beneficial health implications as part
of a healthy diet and physically active
lifestyle.
She said: “The key ingredient demonstrated
to be responsible for enhanced mental
performance is caffeine, which is naturally
contained in coffee but also in tea and
cocoa. Coffee also contains vitamins and
minerals. A wide range of studies have
shown that caffeine improves mental
performance and help maintain a high level
of attention for longer periods and
improves attention span in some
individuals. ”
On the possible side effects of coffee,
Olayemi said: “Everything in life has risk
and everything has benefit. Coffee has
polyphenol that helps in insulin sensitivity.
You need to take 50 to 100 cups daily for
coffee to cause mortality. ”
Brai said that the aim of the Ignite Project
was to unravel coffee health benefits. On
the quantity to be taken, Brai said: “The key
is modesty. Water is good but can kill. So it
has to be in moderation. If you have two to
three cups of coffee a day you are on the
safe side, that is 300mg or less. Four to five
cups is also okay but it is better to be on the
safe side. ”
On the effect of drinking coffee during
pregnancy, Brai said: “There is no harm in
using coffee during pregnancy. Recent
report shows that up to 300mg will not
affect pregnancy. ”
To Ajuluchukwu: “Personally I think coffee
is an adult thing just like kolanut. It is for
enjoyment, for socialising. So we should not
take it as a drug. Take it as enjoyment in
addition to the health benefits. We should
not take coffee as a drug but as enjoyment
benefit. We are sharing unnecessary fears. ”
On why some people have terrible side
effects when they take a little coffee,
Temiye explained: “It is idiosyncrasy
reaction. Idiosyncratic drug reaction
denotes a non-immunological
hypersensitivity to a substance, without
connection to pharmacological toxicity.
Idiosyncratic stresses here the fact that
other individuals would react differently, or
not at all, and that the reaction is an
individual one based on a specific condition
of the one who suffers it. Some people will
react badly after taking peanut, that is
groundnut. I have peanut allergy. I do not
take groundnuts. ”
Meanwhile, a recent study has explained
why coffee may be protective against type
2 diabetes.
Researchers at University of California Los
Angeles (UCLA) have discovered a possible
molecular mechanism behind coffee ’s
protective effect. A protein called sex
hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) regulates
the biological activity of the body ’s sex
hormones, testosterone and estrogen,
which have long been thought to play a role
in the development of type 2 diabetes. And
coffee consumption, it turns out, increases
plasma levels of SHBG.
The study was published in the current
edition of the journal Diabetes.
The study showed that women who drink
at least four cups of coffee a day are less
than half as likely to develop diabetes as
non-coffee drinkers.
When the findings were adjusted for levels
of SHBG, the researchers said that protective
effect disappeared.
For the study, the researchers identified
359 new diabetes cases matched by age
and race with 359 apparently healthy
controls selected from among nearly 40,000
women enrolled in the Women ’s Health
Study, a large-scale cardiovascular trial
originally designed to evaluate the benefits
and risks of low-dose aspirin and vitamin E
in the primary prevention of cardiovascular
disease and cancer.
They found that women who drank four
cups of caffeinated coffee each day had
significantly higher levels of SHBG than did
non-drinkers and were 56 per cent less
likely to develop diabetes than were non-
drinkers. And those who also carried the
protective copy of the SHBG gene appeared
to benefit the most from coffee
consumption.
When the investigators controlled for blood
SHBG levels, the decrease in risk associated
with coffee consumption was not
significant. This suggests that it is SHBG that
mediates the decrease in risk of developing
type 2 diabetes.
Also, moderate coffee consumption has
been shown to improve aortic distensibility
in hypertensive elderly individuals.
A detailed study conducted by a team from
the University of Athens on the Aegean
island of Ikaria has demonstrated that
moderate consumption of coffee by
hypertensive elderly individuals can lead to
improvements in aortic distensibility.
Distensibility is a measure of the elasticity
of arteries, and low levels have long been
recognised as an indicator of
atherosclerosis and a reliable predictor of
future cardiovascular events. By increasing
the load on the heart, hypertension leads to
vascular changes and neuro-hormonal
activation, which causes increases in
vascular stiffness and reduced elasticity.
Between June and October 2009,
researchers from the University of Athens
conducted a health and nutrition survey
using a target group of 343 men and 330
women aged between 65 and 100 — all of
whom were long-term residents of Ikaria.
The island was selected because of its
population ’s high life expectancy, with an
above-average proportion of residents
over 90 years of age. Consideration was
given to a wide range of socio-
demographic, bio-clinical, lifestyle and
dietary characteristics related to
cardiovascular risk factors such as
hypertension, diabetes,
hypercholesterolemia, obesity and
anthropometric indices. Physical activity
status and biochemical parameters related
to cardiovascular risk were also evaluated.
Coffee consumption was particularly
measured during the initial phase of the
study because it is a deeply embedded
social tradition within the Greek population,
and also because of conflicting evidence of
its impact on cardiovascular health.
Coffee has also been shown to protect
against head and neck cancers. Data on the
effects of coffee on cancer risk have been
mixed. However, results of a recent study
add to the brewing evidence that drinking
coffee protects against cancer, this time
against head and neck cancer.
Full study results are published online first
in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &
Prevention, a journal of the American
Association for Cancer Research.
Using information from a pooled-analysis
of nine studies collected by the
International Head and Neck Cancer
Epidemiology (INHANCE) consortium,
participants who were regular coffee
drinkers, that is, those who drank an
estimated four or more cups a day,
compared with those who were non-
drinkers, had a 39 per cent decreased risk
of oral cavity and pharynx cancers
combined.
Data on decaffeinated coffee was too
sparse for detailed analysis, but indicated
no increased risk. Tea intake was not
associated with head and neck cancer risk.
The association is more reliable among
those who are frequent, regular coffee
drinkers, consuming more than four cups of
coffee a day.
Also, high and moderate consumption of tea
and moderate coffee consumption are
linked with reduced heart disease,
according to a study published in
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular
Biology: Journal of the American Heart
Association.
Researchers in The Netherlands found:
drinking more than six cups of tea per day
was associated with a 36 per cent lower
risk of heart disease compared to those
who drank less than one cup of tea per day
and drinking three to six cups of tea per
day was associated with a 45 per cent
reduced risk of death from heart disease,
compared to consumption of less than one
cup per day.
And for coffee they found: coffee drinkers
with a modest intake, two to four cups per
day, had a 20 per cent lower risk of heart
disease compared to those drinking less
than two cups or more than four cups; and
although not considered significant,
moderate coffee consumption slightly
reduced the risk of heart disease death and
deaths from all causes.Researchers also
found that neither coffee nor tea
consumption affected stroke risk.