The Quiescent Benefits

and Drawbacks of Coffee

Intake
By
Raaz Maheshwari, Bina Rani, Shobha Sharma Vikram
Chauhan, Rajnee and Sangeeta Parihar

ISSN 0970-4973 (Print)

ISSN 2319-3077 (Online/Electronic)

Volume 27
No. 1 & 2 (2010)

J. Biol. Chem. Research

Volume 27 2010 Pages No. 45-49

Journal of
Biological and
Chemical Research
Published by Society for Advancement of Sciences
J. Biol. Chem. Research. Vol. 27, No. 1 & 2: 45-49 (2010)
(An International Journal of Life Sciences and Chemistry)
ms 29/2/50/2012, All rights reserved
ISSN 0970-4973 (Print)
ISSN 2319-3077 (Online/Electronic)
Published by Society for Advancement of Science

http:// www.jbcr.in
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[email protected]
REVIEW ARTICLE
Received 16/09/2012 Revised: 25/09/2012 Accepted: 30/09/2012

The Quiescent Benefits and Drawbacks of Coffee Intake

Raaz Maheshwari*, Bina Rani**, Shobha Sharma***,
Vikram Chauhan****, Rajnee***** and
Sangeeta Parihar******
Department of Chemistry, SBRMGC, Nagaur, Rajasthan*, Department of Engineering
Chemistry & Environmental Engineering, PCE, Sitapura**, Jaipur, Rajasthan, Department
of Chemistry, JNVU, Jodhpur, Rajasthan***, Department of Botany, SBRMGC, Nagaur,
Rajasthan****, Department of Physiology, SPMC, Bikaner*****,
Department of Chemistry, JNU, Jodhpur, Rajasthan******
ABSTRACT
Remember when people used to worry that coffee would harm their hearts, give them ulcers,
and make them overly nervous? In excess, coffee, and more particularly, caffeine, can cause
problems. But the fretting about two or three cups a day, or even more, is fading as study
results suggestive of health benefits from coffee keep on coming in. Coffee drinking is
associated with a lower risk of depression among women, a lower risk of lethal prostate
cancer among men, and a lower risk of stroke among men and women. Go back a little
further, and you'll come across reports of possible (it's not a done deal) protective effects
against everything from Parkinson's disease to diabetes to some types of cancer. Caffeine has
been studied more than any other ingredient in coffee, and it tends to get credit if the body
part benefited is the brain. But coffee contains literally a thousand different substances, and
some of the lesser lights are thought to be responsible for healthful effects in other parts of
the body. Some studies show caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee as having the same effect,
which suggests that something else in coffee is involved. Explanations for the association
between coffee consumption and lower rates of heart disease and diabetes often point to
chlorogenic acid and other obscure antioxidant substances as the responsible parties.
Antioxidants are substances that sop up reactive molecules before they have a chance to
harm sensitive tissue like the lining of blood vessels.
 The QuiescentCoffee Intake Raaz et al. 2010

Chlorogenic acid was probably the main antioxidant in your cup of coffee this morning. Some
experiments have shown that it may also inhibit absorption of glucose in the digestive system
and even out insulin levels. Chlorogenic acid might be another coffee ingredient with a split
personality. Along with caffeine, it seems to push up levels of homocysteine, an amino acid
that has been associated with artery-clogging atherosclerosis. Coffee isn't a great source of
vitamins and minerals, but as a plant-based drink, it contains some, and a few that we should
be getting more of. Let's start with magnesium. A cup of coffee contains about 7 mg, which is
a drop in the daily-requirement bucket (420 mg for men, 320 mg for women). A cup of coffee
or two can help close that gap a little bit. Potassium can offset some of the negative
consequences of sodium. At about 116 mg per cup, coffee's contribution toward the 4,700 mg
of the potassium that we're supposed to get daily is a widow's mite, but it's something. A cup
of coffee also has small amounts of niacin (0.5 mg) and choline (6.2 mg).
Keywords: Coffee, Caffeine, Chlorogenic acid, Homocysteine, Antioxidant substances, Anti-
depression, Prostate cancer.
There is nothing quite like a cup of hot coffee to banish that feeling of somnolence and get the
brain cells chugging away. But quite apart from the sense of wellbeing that a good cup of brew,
with its heady aroma, can produce, studies published recently also indicate that this beverage
that millions around the world enjoy could be providing some health benefits too. In May this
year, the prestigious medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine, published a study
that examined the effects of drinking coffee in a cohort of over four lacs men and women in the
US. Coffee appeared to be inversely associated with most major causes of death in both men
and women, including heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents,
diabetes, and infections, observed Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the
US and his colleagues in their paper. After taking into account tobacco-smoking and other
confounding factors, men who drank six cups or more cups of coffee a day had a 10 per cent
lower risk of death compared with those who did not take it at all. Women coffee-drinkers had
a 15 per cent lower risk of death. Those who drank caffeine-containing coffee as well as the
decaffeinated form were both found to benefit from their habit (Cadenas, 1989).
But, as the authors pointed out, it was not possible to conclude from an observational study
whether the association that was noticed actually reflected cause and effect. Then, last month
there came another study, this time in Circulation Heart Failure, a journal of the American Heart
Association. The study analyzed five independent prospective studies, with a total of over 1.4
lacs participants, for links between coffee consumption and heart failure. This study observed a
statistically significant J-shaped relationship between coffee and heart failure. Moderate
consumption of coffee up to four servings a day reduced the risk of heart failure. But
excessive coffee drinking had no benefit and may even be dangerous, remarked Murray
Mittleman, director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit (CERU) at Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston and senior author of the study, in a press release.

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 The QuiescentCoffee Intake Raaz et al. 2010

The paper, however, also pointed out that experimental studies had consistently shown that
coffee and caffeine were associated with acutely raised blood pressure. A recent analysis had
reported that habitual light to moderate coffee consumption increased the risk of developing
hypertension but more frequent consumption did not pose any addition risk. It could be that
habitual coffee-drinkers develop a tolerance for caffeine, the authors said. Other studies have
suggested that drinking coffee could also be associated with a lower risk of developing type 2
diabetes. In 1991, the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC) held that coffee is possibly carcinogenic to the human urinary bladder. But more
recent studies have indicated that coffee could be beneficial, protecting against several cancers,
including of the breast, bowel, prostate and liver (Prakash and Singh, 2009).

A paper from Jiali Han of the Harvard Medical School and the others that has just been
published in the journal Cancer Research found that caffeine intake was associated with
reduced risk for developing a form of skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma. Roughly 1,000
chemicals have been reported in roasted coffee, point out Jonathan Krell and Justin Stebbing of
Imperial College London (ICL) in a commentary published recently in The Lancet Oncology. The
active compounds in coffee associated with anti-cancer properties are largely unknown but
antioxidants might have a role. Moreover, the roasting process too was important and affected
the antioxidant content. But they also cautioned that a large proportion of the evidence for the
beneficial effects of coffee was derived from epidemiological studies that were open to
misinterpretation and error. More well-designed studies were needed to assess this subject
further. Meanwhile, like many aspects of life, everything in moderation seems the safest
policy to adopt, they remarked (Maheshwari, 2005).
Coffee may taste good and get you going in the morning, but what will it do for your health? A
growing body of research shows that coffee drinkers, compared to nondrinkers, are:
less likely to have type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and dementia
have fewer cases of certain cancers, heart rhythm problems, and strokes

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 The QuiescentCoffee Intake Raaz et al. 2010

There is certainly much more good news than bad news, in terms of coffee and health, states
Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, nutrition and epidemiology professor at the Harvard School of Public
Health (HSPH). But (you knew there would be a but, didnt you?) coffee isn't proven to
prevent those conditions. Researchers don't ask people to drink or skip coffee for the sake of
science. Instead, they ask them about their coffee habits. Those studies can't show cause and
effect. It's possible that coffee drinkers have other advantages, such as better diets, more
exercise, or protective genes. So there isn't solid proof (Singh et al. 2009).

Caffeine molecule

But there are signs of potential health perks -- and a few cautions. If you're like the average
American, who downed 416 8-ounce cups of coffee in 2009 (by the World Resources Institute's
estimates), you might want to know what all that java is doing for you, or to you. Here is a
condition-by-condition look at the research.

Type 2 Diabetes
Hu calls the data on coffee and type 2 diabetes "pretty solid," based on more than 15 published
studies. "The vast majority of those studies have shown a benefit of coffee on the prevention of
diabetes. And now there is also evidence that decaffeinated coffee may have the same benefit
as regular coffee, Hu states WebMD.

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 The QuiescentCoffee Intake Raaz et al. 2010

In 2005, Hu's team reviewed nine studies on coffee and type 2 diabetes. Of more than 193,000
people, those who said they drank more than six or seven cups daily were 35% less likely to
have type 2 diabetes than people who drank fewer than two cups daily. There was a smaller
perk -- a 28% lower risk -- for people who drank 4-6 cups a day. The findings held regardless of
sex, weight, or geographic location (US or Europe). More recently, Australian researchers
looked at 18 studies of nearly 458,000 people. They found a 7% drop in the odds of having type
2 diabetes for every additional cup of coffee drunk daily. There were similar risk reductions for
decaf coffee drinkers and tea drinkers. But the researchers cautioned that data from some of
the smaller studies they reviewed may be less reliable. So it's possible that they overestimated
the strength of the link between heavy coffee drinking and diabetes
How might coffee keep diabetes at bay?
Its the whole package, Hu says. He points to antioxidants -- nutrients that help prevent tissue
damage caused by molecules called oxygen-free radicals. We know that coffee has a very
strong antioxidant capacity," Hu states.Coffee also contains minerals such as magnesium and
chromium, which help the body use the hormone insulin, which controls blood sugar (glucose).
In type 2 diabetes, the body loses its ability to use insulin and regulate blood sugar effectively.
It's probably not the caffeine, though. Based on studies of decaf coffee, I think we can safely
say that the benefits are not likely to be due to caffeine," Hu states (Dheer et al. 2005).

REFERENCES
Cadenas, E. 1989. Biochemistry of Oxygen Toxicity, Annals Development Biochemistry, 58,
pp. 79-110.
Prakash, D. and Singh, K.D. 2009. Do Dietary Antioxidants Defend Against Diseases, Invention
Intelligence, 3, pp. 19-23.
Singh, P., Maheshwari, R., Rani, B. and Singh, U. 2009. Herbal Strength of Wine, Tea and
Coffee, Agrobios News letter, VII (11), pp. 40-42.
Maheshwari, R. 2005. Healing Power of Antioxidants, Planta Indica, 1(3), pp. 34-35.
Dheer, R., Mathur, A. and Bhatnagar, P. 2005. The Role of Herbs as Antioxidants, Proceedings
of International Conference on Botanical Products and Expo, March 23-25, Birla
Auditorium, Jaipur, pp. 37-53.

Corresponding author: Dr. Raaz maheshwari, Department of Chemistry, SBRMGC, Nagaur,

Rajasthan, India
Email id: [email protected]

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