Health Effects | Caffeine and You

Will coffee help keep you cancer-free? Possibly.

Coffee reduces the risk of certain cancers, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research. Of course, there’s no guarantee that a coffee habit will ensure a cancer-free life: cancers are complex and for that matter, coffee’s got its own mysteries. But mounting evidence suggests moderate coffee drinking may help reduce the risks of these cancers:

Basal Cell Carcinoma (the most common form of skin cancer)
Colorectal Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Kidney Cancer
Liver Cancer
Oral Cancer

What’s in coffee that prevents cancer?

Coffee’s considered a good scavenger of free radicals, because it’s rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals. Antioxidants neutralize chemicals (free radicals) that may damage body tissues. Phytochemicals are non-essential nutrients that plants develop for defense, protection, and disease-prevention. Phytochemicals include flavonoids, lignans and phenolic acid. Among the caffeine-rich foods we enjoy, tea and chocolate are rich with these compounds, but based on current research, coffee is the wealthiest.

5 Compounds in Coffee That Fight Cancer

Studies show that at least five compounds in coffee help reduce cancer risk:

Chlorogenic acid – This antioxidant compound is the major phenol in coffee. It’s technically an ester formed between quinic acid and caffeic acid. Caffeic acid is its main component; lab studies show it increases self-destruction of cancer cells and reduces inflammation. Chlorogenic acid’s antioxidants may be slightly lower in decaf and in instant coffee, but they’re still abundant. Quinic acid contributes to the acidic taste of coffee and is another phytochemical with antioxidant benefits.

Cafestol and kahweol – These fat-soluble compounds are extracted from coffee’s oils during brewing and are most available in unfiltered coffee (as in French press or boiled coffee; to drink more of these compounds, don’t use paper filters). Studies suggest kahweol and cafestol stimulate enzymes that neutralize carcinogens and block the proteins that activate carcinogens.

Caffeine – Everyone knows caffeine acts as a stimulant. It’s also a powerful antioxidant. Caffeine appears to reduce the risk for basal cell carcinoma (the most common form of skin cancer), though not for other skin cancers. Studies also show that caffeinated coffee, tea and soda reduce the risk; decaffeinated versions do not. Don’t stop applying sunscreen, experts advise, but caffeine appears to act like a sunscreen by directly absorbing damaging UV rays and blocking ATR, a protein activated by ultraviolet light.

Caffeine also reduces the risk of colorectal cancer risk. Researchers believe caffeine speeds carcinogens’ passage through the digestive tract, reducing exposure to these substances. Caffeine may also influence cell signaling to decrease colorectal cancer development.

NMB – N-methylpyridinium (NMB) appears to boost the potency of antioxidants, but it doesn’t occur with raw beans. It’s created during the roasting process, from trigonellin, its chemical precursor in raw coffee beans. NMB is present in both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, including instant.

Contrary to early studies, current research provides good evidence that moderate coffee drinking does not increase cancer risks in most people, and instead may reduce cancer risks.

Coffee Dosage for Cancer-Prevention

How much coffee does it take to get its cancer-fighting benefits? Each study varies in consumption. Some found benefits with as little as one to two cups a day, others averaged four cups, and none of the studies reported benefits when consumption exceeded six cups a day. (Six cups is considered a high dose, and risky for heart and other conditions.) Benefits didn’t happen overnight. Participants generally had a history of several years, if not decades, of daily coffee consumption. (Some research was replicated as lab and cell studies, others as human studies.)

Bottom line:

In the U.S., most coffee drinkers drink from one to three cups a day. If you enjoy coffee, you may be getting cancer-fighting benefits, as long as your daily habit stays within reason, and remains below six cups a day.

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Further reading:

Foods That Fight Cancer: Coffee

Study: Coffee May Reduce Risk of Oral Cancer

Study: Coffee Consumption Reduces Risk of Oral Cancer

Highly Active Compound Found In Coffee May Prevent Colon Cancer

Coffee Consumption and the Risk of Cancers: An Overview

Coffee May Protect Against Skin Cancer

Coffee: Chemistry in Every Cup

Cancer Fighters: A Guide to Phytochemicals (American Institute for Cancer Research)

Does coffee drinking cheat death?

Death is inevitable, but a major study shows…

“Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death.”

I read this twice and still wondered: What exactly does this mean?

“Older adults who drank coffee, both caffeinated or decaffeinated, had a lower risk of death overall than people who did not drink coffee,” says a study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI, a division of the National Institutes of Health) and AARP.

Coffee drinkers aren’t immortal – and they didn’t necessarily live longer – but they were less likely to die from such common killers as heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections. (The association was not seen for cancer, at least in this study, but other research shows coffee reduces the risk of certain cancers.)

Bottom line: coffee is safe to drink – that’s the biggest takeaway from this study. And coffee may even benefit your health. You’ll still die, but maybe not as soon.

A Relief for Billions Worldwide

Americans alone consume 400 million cups of coffee per day, so coffee’s health effects are a big deal.

For decades, coffee’s safety has been questioned. Early studies didn’t weed out smokers, who tend to live life on the edge by eating more red meat and few fruits and vegetables, drinking alcohol, and avoiding exercise. Smokers also tend to drink a lot of coffee. (Previous coffee research is also complicated by conflicting results, which may be due to poor methodology, small samples, conflating caffeine and coffee, or for other reasons.)

But unlike early research, the NCI/AARP study is the largest and longest running of its kind. It analyzed coffee-drinking habits of 400,000 men and women aged 50 to 71 – and it controlled for people with poor health habits, known chronic diseases (like cancer), and other data-skewing factors.

The study analyzed the habits of 229,119 men and 173,141 women over 14 years. Respondents completed questionnaires about their diet and health information in 1995 and 1996, and were tracked through 2008; by the end of the study, 52,000 had died.

The Bottom Line

Generally speaking, here’s what the data showed:

• The more coffee consumed, the less likely a person was to die from various common health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, infections, and even injuries and accidents.

• The risk of dying during the 14-year period was 10 percent lower for men and 15 percent lower for women who drank from two to six or more cups of coffee per day, regardless of whether the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.

• Regular, long-term coffee consumption is associated, then, with a lower risk for certain life-threatening diseases. This study doesn’t support cause and effect: it doesn’t show that drinking coffee itself creates better health or longer life. We can’t be sure why the coffee-drinkers had less disease, only that a significant percentage of them did – and that 5-cup a day drinkers had less incidence of disease than the 2-cup a day group.

Coffee has more than a thousand compounds, including caffeine, which has been well-researched but still confounds scientists. The next step, says Dr. Neal Freedman, the study’s lead author, is to explore these compounds to determine their health impact, both singly and in combination.

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The results of the study were published in the May 17, 2012, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. You can read the actual study here:

Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality