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New study helps explain why coffee drinkers are less likely to develop diabetes

Category: Diabetes

Drinking coffee has been shown to improve the results of blood tests for markers associated with type 2 diabetes risk, but until now no one has been sure exactly what accounted for this property.

Prior studies have indicated that those who drink four cups per day are roughly 50 percent less likely to develop diabetes, regardless of other risk factors. Furthermore, each additional cup that a person drink appears to lower their risk another 7 percent. But why?

Some experts have suggested it may be an effect of the caffeine, while others contended it was related to the presence of antioxidants. However, a new study suggests a different mode of operation.

A team of researchers reported in the Journal of agriculture and Food Chemistry that coffee appears to have molecules that regulate the activity of a protein called hIAPP. Previous studies have linked malfunctions of this protein to heightened diabetes risk.

While more research needs to be conducted to prove the association, the researchers their findings may successfully explain why coffee drinkers appear to be so much less likely to develop diabetes.