Digestion, health and nutrition: Dr. Anil Minocha, a gastroenterologist and nutritionist

Coffee, multiple sclerosis MS

Coffee now good for another disease? The jolt may be beneficial against multiple sclerosis! Based on a studies done in mice, it appears that coffee may protect against MS.

Before you jump and drink coffee for multiple sclerosis, bear in mind that a recent epidemiological study from Belgrade found that coffee consumption is higher among MS patients.

Another similar Italian study had found an association between MS and high consumption of coffee and tea in the period from infancy to adolescence.

Bottomline, mice are not humans and lot more work needs to be done on the issue of coffee and MS before any definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Coffee death risk

The relationship between coffee consumption and health and various diseases has frequently been conflicting. Literature suggests that coffee may have positive effect in diabetes mellitus, heart disease and cancer.

A recent study examined data on over 41,00 men and 84,000 women. The issues studied included coffee drinking, diet and smoking. The investigators founded that subjects who consumed coffee were less likely to die during the study period. They attributed this to reduction in heart-related deaths while there was no effect of coffee on cancer deaths.

It is interesting that the association with coffee was positive irrespective of whether the subjects drank regular or decaffeinated coffee. This suggests that caffeine may not be the only positive factor in coffee.

Coffee has numerous other substances besides caffeine that may contribute to beneficial effects.  These include phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity, magnesium, trigonelline and quinides. The effects of such substances may be mediated via their effects on inflammation, blood vessels,  and diabetes.

Authors concluded that drinking large amounts of coffee may be protective against early death. This is consistent with another recent study in elderly Finnish population.

Do you drink coffee, lots of it? or decaffienated? What are your thoughts on this report and if it will affect your coffee habits? Please share your thoughts.