What is excess coffee consumption doing to your health?

By MiNDFOOD

What is excess coffee consumption doing to your health?
For many people around the world a morning coffee is the only way to start the day. Coffee lovers also enjoy the fact that that science has shown the benefits of a daily cup or few, from improved physical performance to lowering your risk of Type 2 diabetes. But new research shows there can be too much of a good thing.

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, with over 160 million 60kg bags of coffee consumed worldwide each year. While studies show that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of several serious diseases, researchers have shown too much coffee can cause some serious problems too.

In a world-first study using genetic analysis by the University of South Australia’s Australian Centre for Precision Health, researchers have shown that shown that excess coffee consumption can cause poor health.

Using data from over 300,000 participants, researchers examined connections between genetically instrumented habitual coffee consumption and a full range of diseases, finding that too much coffee can increase the risk of osteoarthritis, arthropathy (joint disease) and obesity.

Lead researcher and genetic epidemiologist, UniSA’s Professor Elina Hyppönen says understanding any risks associated with habitual coffee intakes could have very large implications for population health. In earlier research conducted by Professor Hyppönen and team, six cups of coffee a day were considered the upper limit of safe consumption.

“Typically, the effects of coffee consumption are investigated using an observational approach, where comparisons are made against non-coffee-drinkers. But this can deliver misleading results.

“In this study, we used a genetic approach – called MR-PheWAS analysis – to establish the true effects of coffee consumption against 1117 clinical conditions.

“Reassuringly, our results suggest that, moderate coffee drinking is mostly safe.

“But it also showed that habitual coffee consumption increased the risks of three diseases: osteoarthritis, arthropathy and obesity, which can cause significant pain and suffering for individuals with these conditions.”

“For people with a family history of osteoarthritis or arthritis, or for those who are worried about developing these conditions, these results should act as a cautionary message.

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