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Why coffee drinking reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes

Date:
January 18, 2012
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Why do heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a disease on the increase around the world that can lead to serious health problems? Scientists are now offering a new solution to that long-standing mystery,
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Why do heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a disease on the increase around the world that can lead to serious health problems? Scientists are offering a new solution to that long-standing mystery in a report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

Ling Zheng, Kun Huang and colleagues explain that previous studies show that coffee drinkers are at a lower risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90-95 percent of diabetes cases in the world. Those studies show that people who drink four or more cups of coffee daily have a 50 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. And every additional cup of coffee brings another decrease in risk of almost 7 percent. Scientists have implicated the misfolding of a substance called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) in causing Type 2 diabetes, and some are seeking ways to block that process. Zheng and Huang decided to see if coffee's beneficial effects might be due to substances that block hIAPP.

Indeed, they identified two categories of compounds in coffee that significantly inhibited hIAPP. They suggest that this effect explains why coffee drinkers show a lower risk for developing diabetes. "A beneficial effect may thus be expected for a regular coffee drinker," the researchers conclude.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Basic Research Program of China and the Chinese Ministry of Education.


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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Biao Cheng, Xinran Liu, Hao Gong, Lianqi Huang, Hong Chen, Xin Zhang, Chuanzhou Li, Muyang Yang, Bingjun Ma, Lihua Jiao, Ling Zheng, Kun Huang. Coffee Components Inhibit Amyloid Formation of Human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide in Vitro: Possible Link between Coffee Consumption and Diabetes Mellitus. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2011; 59 (24): 13147 DOI: 10.1021/jf201702h

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Why coffee drinking reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 January 2012. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120111133958.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2012, January 18). Why coffee drinking reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 19, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120111133958.htm
American Chemical Society. "Why coffee drinking reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120111133958.htm (accessed March 19, 2024).

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