People who tank up on coffee may reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.
The study of more than 126,000 men and women found people who drank more coffee had a lower risk of the blood sugar disease than those who drank less or none of the beverage. The effect was greatest for men whose coffee intake topped five cups a day. This group had about half the odds of developing diabetes as men who didn’t drink any regular coffee.
Women who drank caffeinated coffee also gained protection from type 2 diabetes, though not quite as much as men. For both men and women, the effects of coffee drinking on diabetes risk didn’t become pronounced until people downed at least four cups a day.
In the study, in which Harvard University researchers combined data from two large, previous studies, average coffee consumption was about one to two cups a day.
However, the researchers warn that their study “cannot prove a cause-effect relationship” between caffeine consumption and a lower risk of diabetes. And, they add, “it is premature to recommend increased coffee drinking as a means to prevent type 2 diabetes.”
The latest work is reported in the Jan. 6 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
How coffee might lower the risk of diabetes isn’t clear. “Coffee contains several hundreds, if not thousands, of different compounds,” said Dr. Annika Rosengren, a cardiologist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden. “It’s very difficult to say which compound is the protective one.”
What’s more, in the short run coffee seems to impair the body’s sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that helps cells take up blood sugar.
Oh, my aching wallet!
The medical costs of back pain in this country now exceed $90 billion, a new study has found. That figure represented 1 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product in 1998.
Experts have long known that back pain–bad discs, spine disorders, injuries–is a major sponge for health-care dollars. But previous estimates have been based on 1977 data that were periodically adjusted. The latest study, by researchers at Duke University Medical Center, provides the most up-to-date picture of the financial toll back pain takes. Their report appears in the January issue of Spine.
However, the researchers say the figures are incomplete. They don’t include information about back pain in nursing home patients, who in the 1977 research accounted for about 20 percent of medical costs. The costs of care for back pain probably top $100 billion.
Herbal tea fights jaundice
An Eastern herbal cure for jaundice has been shown effective by researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
The main ingredient in the Chinese herbal tea yin zhi huang activates a liver receptor that enhances the clearance of the bile pigment bilirubin, the researchers say. Jaundice is caused by the accumulation of bilirubin in the body.
In Western nations, jaundice is most commonly treated with exposure to light. This finding could provide an additional drug therapy. The findings are published in the Jan. 2 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
