How Drinking Coffee Lowers Diabetes Risk Up To 50%

For years studies have suggested that people who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a 50% lower risk of getting type 2 diabetes, but researchers never knew why. A new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease shares the new findings.

How you take your coffee matters though. Don’t load your cup with cream and sugar – both of which encourage weight gain and are empty calories. Drinking coffee with a bit of milk and honey is okay, but having your coffee black is really the only way to go.

A Hot Cup of Health

So what is it in coffee that helps stave off type 2 diabetes? Three compounds in coffee seem to block the accumulation of a protein linked to an increased risk of diabetes. When the protein accumulates it creates a toxic situation in your metabolic and endocrine systems.

Type 2 diabetes comes about when the pancreas no longer produces enough insulin or the body becomes insulin resistant to some degree. Insulin allows the food you eat to be used as energy – without insulin, this energy turns into problematic ketones and puts the kidneys into overdrive.

“We found three major coffee compounds can reverse this toxic process…”

Researchers suggest that these compounds fight hIAPP (human islet amyloid polypeptide) buildups. HIAPP is similar to the beta amyloid, a protein that is being linked to Alzheimer’s disease, which is now being considered type 3 diabetes, by some.

When these hIAPP deposits grow they can lead to the death of pancreatic cells. Only 1% of the cells in the pancreas make insulin, so the more cells that die, the more likely it is that you will no longer to be able to create insulin.

Coffee has three major compounds that destroy these hIAPP deposits. Researchers exposed hIAPP to coffee extracts and monitored the results. They found that the toxic formation of the hIAPP amyloid was inhibited by coffee’s killer compounds.

The Compounds

Caffeine, Caffeic acid (CA), and Chlorogenic acid (CGA) are the compounds in question. They not only inhibited the hIAPP amyloid’s growth, but they also protect the pancreatic cells. The results show that decaf coffee works as well, but why?

Well, caffeine had the lowest effects of all three compounds. Caffeine has a lot of great properties – it will wake you up, help shake the fog out of your brain, and improve your focus and concentration. Apart from type 2 diabetes, coffee was seen to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease as well.

Small, Medium or Large?

Regular exposure to coffee – researchers are suggesting 4 cups a day – will keep these amyloids from building up, be it in your pancreas or in your brain. And while decaf works several studies suggest it is especially better for those who already have diabetes.

As a type 1 diabetic I’m not even sure that I can get type 2 diabetes, but I keep drinking the sweet nectar of wakefulness – just in case.