Can Caffeine Lower Your Risk for Type 2 Diabetes?
Higher blood caffeine levels appear to reduce the risks for both adiposity and type 2 diabetes, the results of a new study suggest. Explaining that caffeine has thermogenic effects, the researchers note that previous short-term studies have linked caffeine intake with reductions in weight and fat mass. And observational data have shown associations between coffee consumption with lower risks of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
In an effort to isolate the effects of caffeine from those of other food and drink components, Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues used data from studies of mainly European populations to examine two specific genetic mutations that have been linked to a slower speed of caffeine metabolism.
The two gene variants resulted in “genetically predicted, lifelong, higher plasma caffeine concentrations,” the researchers note “and were associated with lower body mass index and fat mass, as well as a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.”
Excerpted from Medscape
