Written by Joyce Smith, BS. This study suggests that coffee consumption might benefit health by modulating key metabolic and inflammatory pathways involved in chronic diseases.
Sixty-two percent of United States adults are daily coffee drinkers, according to a 2017 report by The National Coffee Association 1. Population studies have found that coffee consumption is linked to a decreased risk of certain chronic diseases such as type two diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular disease (CVD), certain cancers and reduced mortality 2. Coffee contains a rich source of bioactive compounds such as caffeine, chlorogenic acids and diterpenes which may produce physiological effects and affect a multitude of biomarkers linked to many chronic diseases. Few studies have shown inconsistent results with respect to coffee consumption and its effect on biomarkers of insulin secretion 3 , insulin like growth factor (IGF) 4, sex hormones 5,6, adiponectin 7, and inflammation 8; however, results have been inconsistent, with small studies, and no control for confounding lifestyle factors.
Dang et al 9 addressed these limitations in a current study that demonstrated an association between coffee drinking and favorable profiles of fourteen biomarkers involved in key metabolic and inflammatory pathways. They used data obtained from a cohort of 15,551 women who participated in the Nurses Health Study and a cohort of 7,397 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Using multivariable linear regression and adjusting for a variety of demographic, clinical and lifestyle factors, the research team compared the percentage difference in fourteen biomarker concentrations between coffee drinkers and nondrinkers. All participants were diabetes, CVD, and cancer free at the time of blood draw.
Compared to nondrinkers, participants who drank four or more cups of coffee/day had lower concentrations of the following biomarkers: C-peptide (-8.7%, IGF binding protein 3 (IGFBP 3, -2.2), estrone (-6.4%), total estradiol (-5.7%), free estradiol (-8.1%), leptin (-6.4%), C-reactive protein (CRP, -16.6), IL-6 (-8.1%), and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (sTNFR, -2%). Also evident in the four or more cups/day coffee drinkers were higher concentrations of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG, 5 %), total testosterone (7.3% in women and 5.3 % in men), total adiponectin (0.3%), and high-molecular weight adiponectin (17.2%). When comparing caffeinated to decaffeinated coffee drinkers, the results were comparable.
Study limitations included the cross-sectional design which could not prove causation. In addition, the predominantly large number of participating white health professionals limited generalizability of results. Furthermore, assessed biomarkers may be interrelated in a complex manner, which would makes disentangling their independent associations with coffee intake more difficult. Among all the studied biomarkers, CRP, HMW adiponectin, and estrogen appeared to be most strongly associated with coffee, whereas a relatively modest association was found for C-peptide (monitors insulin production in the body). There is also the possibility that the current findings may have been largely driven by a reduction in inflammation and changes in sex hormone metabolism.
Future prospective and interventional studies are warranted to confirm present findings and to ascertain whether coffee consumption is associated with changes in biomarker concentrations over time.
Source: Hang, Dong, Ane Sørlie Kværner, Wenjie Ma, Yang Hu, Fred K. Tabung, Hongmei Nan, Zhibin Hu et al. “Coffee consumption and plasma biomarkers of metabolic and inflammatory pathways in US health professionals.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 109, no. 3 (2019): 635-647.
© 2019 American Society for Nutrition. All rights reserved.
Posted January 27, 2020.
Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.
References:
- National Coffee Association. National Coffee Data Trends 2019. 2019; http://www.ncausa.org/Industry-Resources/Market-Research/NCDT. Accessed January 20, 2019.
- Gunter MJ, Murphy N, Cross AJ, et al. Coffee drinking and mortality in 10 European countries: a multinational cohort study. Annals of internal medicine. 2017;167(4):236-247.
- Pham NM, Nanri A, Kochi T, et al. Coffee and green tea consumption is associated with insulin resistance in Japanese adults. Metabolism. 2014;63(3):400-408.
- Maruyama K, Iso H, Ito Y, et al. Associations of food and nutrient intakes with serum IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-3, TGF-β1, total SOD activity and sFas levels among middle-aged Japanese: the JACC Study. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention. 2009;10(SUPPL. 1):7-22.
- Schliep KC, Schisterman EF, Mumford SL, et al. Caffeinated beverage intake and reproductive hormones among premenopausal women in the BioCycle Study. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2012;95(2):488-497.
- Frey T, Platz EA, Kanarek N, Bradwin G, Dobs AS, Rohrmann S. Consumption of caffeinated beverages and serum concentrations of sex steroid hormones in US men. Cancer Causes & Control. 2018;29(1):157-166.
- Williams CJ, Fargnoli JL, Hwang JJ, et al. Coffee consumption is associated with higher plasma adiponectin concentrations in women with or without type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study. Diabetes care. 2008;31(3):504-507.
- Zampelas A, Panagiotakos DB, Pitsavos C, Chrysohoou C, Stefanadis C. Associations between coffee consumption and inflammatory markers in healthy persons: the ATTICA study. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2004;80(4):862-867.
- Hang D, Kværner AS, Ma W, et al. Coffee consumption and plasma biomarkers of metabolic and inflammatory pathways in US health professionals. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2019;109(3):635-647.
