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Drinking coffee may stave off diabetes
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In agreement with previous research,
drinking coffee seems to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
That word comes from a study conducted in Finland, the world's biggest
per-capita consumer of coffee.
Although coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world and
diabetes is a very common disease, relatively few studies have looked
at the link between two, Dr. Jaako Tuomilehto, from National Public
Health Institute in Helsinki, and colleagues note.
In January, US researchers reported that intake of coffee or other
caffeinated beverages seemed to protect against diabetes. A similar
association was observed in a Dutch study released in 2002.
As reported in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association,
Tuomilehto's team analyzed data from surveys conducted in 1982,
1987, and 1992 to assess the link between coffee intake and diabetes
in 6974 men and 7655 women. The subjects were free of diabetes,
heart disease, and stroke when they entered the studies.
During an average follow-up period of 12 years, 381 subjects were
diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the authors note.
In both men and women, the risk of diabetes decreased as daily
coffee intake increased, but the trend only reached statistical
significance in women. Compared with their peers who drank 0 to
2 cups of coffee per day, men and women who drank at least 10 cups
daily (the highest amount in the study) were 55 and 79 percent less
likely, respectively, to develop diabetes.
The apparent anti-diabetes effect for coffee persisted after accounting
for a variety of factors, such as body weight, smoking status, alcohol
use, and consumption of filtered or nonfiltered coffee.
Exactly how coffee protects against diabetes is unclear, the researchers
state, adding that it may be due to ingredients other than caffeine.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, March 10,
2004.
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