Study Signals Caffeine Reduces Risk of MS
March 18, 2015
A recent study has shown that coffee can help to prevent Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that causes the immune system to eat away at the protective covering of nerves. Dr. Ellen Mowry with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore reviewed two studies alongside her colleagues. One of these studies was done in Sweden, and the other in the United States of America.
During the Swedish study, they analyzed 1,629 people with MS and 2,807 healthy people. In the American variation of the study, 1,159 people with MS and 1,172 healthy people were analyzed. They looked at the coffee consumption of MS patients 1 year, 5 years, and (in the Swedish study) 10 years prior to their symptoms beginning. They then compared it to the coffee consumption of people who didn’t have MS around the same timeframe.
The study revealed that non-coffee drinkers are at 1.5 times the risk that coffee drinkers are of MS. In Sweden, the average person needs to consume 6 cups of coffee in order to reduce the risk. In America, the average person needs to consume 4 cups. Factors such as age, gender, body mass index, and sun exposure habits were taken into account during the study. The study itself will be presented on April 18th through 25th of 2015 at the American Academy of Neurology’s 67th Annual Meeting.
Caffeine has also been known to reduce the risk of Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease. The reasons coffee’s caffeine content is helpful in preventing neurological diseases are its properties that suppress the creation of proinflammatory cytokines. Cytokines are generally small proteins important in cell signaling. Those cytokines promote tissue destruction. In some cases, they have also caused shock and death.
A different study published in 2001 in the European Journal of Neurology found that eating fish and drinking alcohol can also help stop MS from getting worse. It is by no means recommended to drink the amount of alcohol or coffee needed to do so. However, if you do so in moderation, it will end up helping. The alcohol will likely do more harm than good in the end, so coffee or fish is the more sensible route to go. Since Multiple Sclerosis is such an unpredictable disease, this study could change how doctors go about stopping it.
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