A diagnosis of diabetes comes with a long list of “don’ts.” But new research suggests that coffee and tea probably shouldn’t be off-limits because each may help prevent an early death.
Well, at least if you’re a woman with diabetes, that is.
Men with diabetes didn’t seem to reap the rewards of consuming caffeine in the new study.
The research found that women with diabetes who had up to one regular cup of coffee a day (100 milligrams of caffeine) were 51 percent less likely to die than women who consumed no caffeine during the 11-year study.
“As caffeine is consumed by more than 80 percent of the world’s adult population, it is essential to understand the impact of this factor concerning cardiovascular, cancer and all-cause mortality,” said study researcher Dr. Joao Sergio Neves, an endocrinology resident at Sao Joao Hospital Center in Porto, Portugal.
“Our study showed a significant inverse association between caffeine consumption and death from all causes in women with diabetes,” said Neves.
“These results suggest that advising women with diabetes to drink more caffeine may reduce their mortality. This would represent a simple, clinically beneficial, and inexpensive option in women with diabetes,” Neves said.
A very interesting study! Previous longitudinal studies have shown that women who drink significant amounts of coffee (3+ cups a day) have lower death rates than control groups in several different cases. I suspect the protective effect is true regardless of whether one has diabetes or not. Also, my understanding of previous studies is that more women were studied because the study group was made of nurses (which in the U.S. and Europe are most frequently female).
A side note on previous studies: one of the proposed mechanisms at work is psychological. Women who drink coffee (not aware of studies on tea) are less likely to commit suicide, and this also seems like it would apply to diabetic women (who along with diabetic men, as we all know, suffer higher levels of depression than non-diabetic). One of the reasons I use to justify drinking a half pot every morning
I don’t care but I’m not giving up my one cup of green tea per day. No coffee for me because it upsets my stomach etc. too much caffeine is bad for me for various reasons.
