June 27, 2006
HEALTH: Drinking Decaf May Lower Diabetes Risk
By Lee Bowman
Scripps Howard News Service
Drinking several cups of decaf a day -- along with skirting insomnia and
jitters -- may lower a person's risk for developing type 2 diabetes,
according to a new study.
The research published Monday, June 26, 2006 in the Archives of Internal
Medicine found that postmenopausal women who daily drank more than six cups
of coffee -- particularly decaffeinated coffee -- had a 33 percent lower
risk of developing diabetes than women who didn't drink coffee at all.
Researchers from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health
analyzed coffee intake and diabetes risk in more than 28,000 women enrolled
in the Iowa Women's Health Study. At the start of the 11-year study period,
none of the women had heart disease or diabetes, but during the follow-up,
1,418 reported being diagnosed with diabetes.
Mark Pereira, an associate professor at Minnesota who led the study, said
the risk reduction from drinking coffee is independent of other diabetic
risk factors, such as obesity and physical activity.
"There appears to be great potential for coffee to help reduce the risk of
diabetes. Identifying the mechanism responsible for this should definitely
be the subject of further research," Pereira said.
About half the women drank one to three cups of coffee a day, about 3,000
said they drank none and about 2,900 said they drank more than six cups. For
this group, those who daily drank that much of any type of coffee were 22
percent less likely to be diagnosed with the most common form of diabetes
than those who drank no coffee, with the risk reduction rising to 33 percent
among those consuming more than six cups of decaf daily.
Overall caffeine intake didn't seem to affect the risk for diabetes. So
researchers figured that another component -- one that's not removed along
with the caffeine -- must be involved. One candidate was magnesium, which is
known to influence the metabolism of carbohydrates, but the study found no
link between the mineral and diabetes risk.
Other minerals and nutrients found in coffee beans, including compounds
known as polyphenols -- known to help the body process carbohydrates and
antioxidants that may protect cells in the insulin-producing pancreas -- may
contribute to the beneficial effects and should be examined in further
studies, the researchers said.
More than 20 million Americans have diabetes, with at least 6 million of
those cases undiagnosed. People with the disease either do not produce
enough insulin for their body to process sugar, or their cells don't respond
to the insulin they produce.
In the study group, higher coffee intake also was connected to lower blood
pressure, but increased rates of alcohol consumption and smoking. Women who
drank more coffee also ate less fruit and low-fat dairy products.
"Having a healthy diet, controlling your weight and exercising are essential
to preventing the onset of diabetes, but drinking coffee has the potential
to further reduce the risk of diabetes," Pereira said. "It may be necessary
to rethink the idea that drinking coffee does more harm than good."
On the Net: http://www.jama-archives.org
Contact Lee Bowman at BowmanL@shns.com