MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Pietro Manuel Ferraro, MD PhD Candidate
Division of Nephrology
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
Rome Italy
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Ferraro: We analyzed the association between caffeine intake and the risk of developing kidney stones in three large cohorts of U.S. health professionals. The 217,883 participants included did not have any history of kidney stones when follow-up began. During 20 years of follow-up, 4,982 of them developed a kidney stone. In all three cohorts, participants with higher intakes of caffeine had a reduced risk of developing kidney stones. Intake of caffeine from sources other than coffee was also associated with reduced risk of kidney stones. Among 6,033 participants with 24-hour urine data, intake of caffeine was associated with higher excretion of calcium but also higher urine volume and lower likelihood of calcium and uric acid stone formation.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Stephanie Faubion, M.D
Director of the Women’s Health Clinic
Mayo Clinic in Rochester
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Faubion: In this study that included over 1800 women, we found that caffeine intake was associated with more bothersome hot flashes and night sweats in postmenopausal women.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Frank B. Hu MD MPH PhD
Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology
From the Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hu: We found that people who increased the amount of coffee they drank each day by more than one cup over a four-year period had a 11% lower risk for type 2 diabetes than those who made no changes to their coffee consumption, but those who decreased their coffee consumption by more than a cup per day increased their type 2 diabetes risk by 17%.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Christa E. Müller
University of Bonn Pharmaceutical Institute Pharmaceutical
Chemistry I An der Immenburg 4 D-53121 Bonn (Endenich) Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Dr. Christa E. Müller: Genetically altered mice which show an aggregation of Tau protein and many symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease which progressively worsen with time was used.
Caffeine was given to one group of mice at an early stage, when the symptoms were still moderate.
The caffeine-treated mice showed better memory and less inflammation and brain damages in comparison to the non-treated control mice. This means that caffeine protected the mice to some extent. The side effects were moderate.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Woon-Puay Koh (Associate Professor)
Office of Clinical Sciences
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore
8 College Road Level 4 | Singapore 169857
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The main finding is that coffee intake was associated with a lower risk of death from cirrhosis, specifically for non-viral hepatitis related cirrhosis. Subjects who drank two or more cups per day had a 66% reduction in mortality risk, compared to non-daily coffee drinkers. However, coffee intake was not associated with viral hepatitis B related cirrhosis mortality.
Janet L. Stanford, MPH, PhD
Full Member, Research Professor
Co-Head, Program in Prostate Cancer Research
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
1100 Fairview Ave. N. M4-B874
Seattle, WA 98109-1024
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Stanford: The main finding from our research is that one or more cups of coffee per day is associated with a 56% to 59% reduction in the risk of prostate cancer recurrence or progression in men diagnosed with this common disease. In our cohort of prostate cancer patients, 61% reported drinking at least one cup of coffee per day, with 14% reporting drinking 4 or more cups per day. The lower risk for prostate cancer recurrence/progression observed in coffee drinkers, however, was seen even for those who consumed only one cup per day, suggesting that even modest intake of coffee may offer health benefits for prostate cancer patients.
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Helena Hallström Ph.D., M.Sc. (Toxicology)
Department of Surgical Sciences, Section of Orthopedics
Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden and
Risk and Benefit Assessment Department National Food Agency, Uppsala, Sweden.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The aim of the study was to investigate whether high consumption of coffee is associated with osteoporosis and development of osteoporotic fractures, since results from previous fracture studies regarding potential associations between coffee drinking and fracture risk are inconsistent. The longitudinal population-based Swedish Mammography Cohort, including 61,433 women born between 1914 and 1948, was followed from 1987 through 2008. Coffee consumption was assessed with repeated food frequency questionnaires. During follow-up, 14,738 women experienced any type of fracture and of these 3,871 had a hip fracture. In a sub-cohort (n=5,022), bone density was measured and osteoporosis was determined (n=1,012). There was no evidence of a higher rate of any fracture or hip fracture with increasing coffee consumption. However, a high coffee intake (≥4 cups) in comparison with a low intake (<1 cup) was associated with a 2-4% reduction in bone mineral density (BMD), depending on site (p<0.001), but the odds ratio of osteoporosis was only 1.28 (95% confidence interval: 0.88, 1.87). Thus, high coffee consumption was associated with a small reduction in bone density that did not translate into an increased risk of fracture.