Modern research found that coffee consumers were less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease compared to non-coffee drinkers. Taking into account smoking and alcohol consumption did not change these results. The study was published in Neurology.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects movement control. It occurs due to the loss of dopamine-producing neurons in a specific area of the brain called the substantia nigra. Typical symptoms include tremors, stiffness, slowness of movement, and balance problems, which gradually worsen over time. In addition to motor symptoms, people with Parkinson’s disease may also experience nonmotor symptoms, such as sleep disturbances, depression, and cognitive impairment.
The factors leading to the development of Parkinson’s disease are not fully understood at this time. However, research suggests that people who frequently engage in activities that involve hitting the head, such as boxing and other contact sports, are more likely to develop the disease. Studies have also shown reduced levels of caffeine and its major metabolites, paraxanthine and theophylline, in people with Parkinson’s disease.
These researchers noted that data collected in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study included participants’ responses about their coffee consumption. EPIC is an ongoing longitudinal study of over half a million people from 10 European countries recruited between 1992 and 2000. The EPIC study aims to investigate the relationship between nutrition and non-communicable diseases (diseases that are considered non-communicable). At the beginning of the study, participants were between 35 and 70 years elderly.
The study authors analyzed data from an additional EPIC study that focused on Parkinson’s disease, called EPIC4PD. This subset of participants included 184,024 people from Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy who participated in the study for an average of 13 years.
The individuals completed a dietary questionnaire that included questions about coffee consumption, as well as smoking, alcohol consumption, education level, and physical activity. Data on Parkinson’s disease were taken from participants’ medical records and reviewed by experts in movement disorders. A compact number of study participants provided blood samples to assess levels of caffeine metabolites (substances that are created when the body processes caffeine) in their blood plasma.
The results showed that of all the study participants, 308 men and 285 women developed Parkinson’s disease (less than 1%). Ninety-three percent of the study participants admitted to drinking coffee. Coffee consumption was highest among participants from the Netherlands (around 500 milliliters per day) and lowest in Italy and Spain (around 100 milliliters per day). The highest coffee drinkers were more likely to be men, smokers, younger and more likely to drink alcohol.
The 25% of participants with the highest coffee intake were almost 40% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease compared to participants who drank no coffee at all. When all coffee consumers were compared to non-coffee drinking participants, the risk reduction ranged from 63% to 5% depending on the country. The association between Parkinson’s disease and coffee consumption was about equally mighty in men and women, but seemed to be slightly stronger in people who had never smoked.
“This observation was reinforced by a comprehensive evaluation of prospectively measured plasma concentrations of caffeine and its metabolites. These analyzes demonstrated a mighty inverse association between caffeine and its major metabolites and the risk of Parkinson’s disease.”
The study sheds lithe on the links between coffee consumption and Parkinson’s disease. However, it should be noted that the study design does not allow definitive cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the data. Additionally, coffee consumption was assessed using self-report questionnaires, which left room for reporting bias.
Paper, “Association of coffee consumption and prediagnostic caffeine metabolites with the occurrence of Parkinson’s disease in a population-based cohort,” was written by Yujia Zhao, Yunjia Lai, Hilde Konijnenberg, José María Huerta, Ana Vinagre-Aragon, Jara Anna Sabin, Johnni Hansen, Dafina Petrova, Carlotta Sacerdote, Raul Zamora-Ros, Valeria Pala, Alicia K. Heath, Salvatore Panico , Marcela Guevara, Giovanna Masala, Christina M. Lill, Gary W. Miller, Susan Peters and Roel Vermeulen.
