Coffee may make diabetes worse

[Javaphile]

Daily consumption of caffeine in coffee, tea or soft drinks increases blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes, research suggests.

Full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7209385.stm


Java "Sippin away" phile

[Dimal]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Sheesh,

You never know what to believe with all these studies going on..... I was just reading another study a couple of weeks ago sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Institute, that made exactly the opposite claims. Who do you believe? :-?

Mal.

[Javaphile]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Hhhmmm.....The only study Im aware of like that suggests that coffee helps prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. This study suggests that once youve developed type 2 diabetes that caffeine is bad. The two are not mutually exclusive.


Java "2 sides of the same coin?" phile

[wally3178]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Being a type 2 diabetic, I have absolutely no intention of giving up my Java. So what if I dont live to be 110, 105 will be just fine.

Seems to me that there is always someone out there trying to find a reason to stop people doing things they enjoy and if we listened to them all wed be wrapped in cottonwool sitting in little boxes doing nothing with our lives. One of these days some researcher is going to announce that death is detrimental to health; then what??

Good health is just a very slow way to die.

Wal

[Thundergod]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

I have my own theory.

Avoiding all the things they tell you to doesnt make you live longer, it just seems like it.

[kohi]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

I wonder if it increases the blood sugar levels of Type 1 diabetics too???  And what about if milk is added - I guess that would increase it even more considering the lactose/glucose structure changes once the milk is heated (or have I just made this up???)

I say lets hear more about this device with a tiny glucose monitor thats embedded under the skin.  Whilst it could "track the effects of caffeine over 72-hours as the patients with type 2 diabetes went about their normal lives", I know quite a few people (with Type 1 & 2 diabetes) who could use it to track their blood sugar level for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and this would allow them to have some sort of a normal life.  For them, this device could substantially increase their ability to control their blood sugar levels, therefore decreasing the chance of disease/side effects of "bad control".  They could drink as many cups of coffee that they wanted then!

[beanz4brainz]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse


Oh dear.....here we go again! Yet another negative research outcome for yet another joy of life. Prolly sponsored by a bunch of tea wholesalers.

Damn......I consume so many joys, I should have died 25 years before I was born!!

Now every time I step up to the VBM, Ill say to myself, "feeling lucky today, Punk?..... well, are ya?"

Lets face it kids.....Nobody gets out Alive!!


b4b.

[Dimal]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Hhhmmm.....The only study Im aware of like that suggests that coffee helps prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. This study suggests that once youve developed type 2 diabetes that caffeine is bad. The two are not mutually exclusive.


Java "2 sides of the same coin?" phile

Yep, youre right there Java....

The antagonist argument is based on a very small study population at this stage and I guess a larger cross sectional study will be more persuasive if the initial results are carried through. This is an excerpt from the Johns Hopkins study I was reading a little while ago,

Mal.

[cjhfield]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

The original statement by Javaphile is incorrect. The "study" of only 10 people over 3 days was looking at consumption of caffeine tablets not coffee. There is plenty of evidence that coffee consumption reduces risk of type 2 diabetes (lowers c-peptide levels, lowers uric acid). How it does that is not thought to be via caffeine but some other component in the coffee. Clearly this effect outweighs any effect by the caffeine alone. I dont think you can take much from such a tiny sample anyway.

Chris

[Javaphile]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

The original statement by Javaphile is incorrect. The "study" of only 10 people over 3 days was looking at consumption of caffeine tablets not coffee.

What is incorrect about my statement? The title of the thread is the title of the linked article and the one and only sentence in my original post is a direct quote of the opening line of the linked article.

There is plenty of evidence that coffee consumption reduces risk of type 2 diabetes (lowers c-peptide levels, lowers uric acid). How it does that is not thought to be via caffeine but some other component in the coffee. Clearly this effect outweighs any effect by the caffeine alone. I dont think you can take much from such a tiny sample anyway.

Again you are missing the point of the article and making the same mistake that a previous poster poster did. The research you are pointing out is the potential effect of coffee on preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes. This study is about the potential effects of caffeine once you have type 2 diabetes.


Java "The devil is in the details" phile

[wally3178]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Smee again,

I have been carrying out a little experiment of my own since my last sarcastic post and have found no variance from "My" norm as far as BGL is concerned. I say "My" because I cant speak for anyone else.

I drank my usual 8 or 9 mugs of coffee per day and tested my BGL every two hours from 6am through to 10pm and I found that it was consistently in the range of 5.5 to 7.0; pretty normal. I did not vary my insulin regime in that time.

All I can say is that the alluded effect in type II diabetics is only on those whose BGL is not controlled by some sort of medication. I wonder if we have a Doc in the group who can offer comment?

Cheers,

Wally

[cjhfield]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Java wrote:

What is incorrect about my statement? The title of the thread is the title of the linked article and the one and only sentence in my original post is a direct quote of the opening line of the linked article.


Yes the journalist who wrote those lines was incorrect. This "study" did not give any patient any coffee. They only gave them caffeine tablets and assumed that was the same thing. Actually coffee consumption improves insulin sensitivity. This means you are less likely to develop diabetes in the first place and if you have diabetes your control may be slightly better on it. It certainly does not mean that people who have diabetes should give up their coffee. ( All things in moderation however, very high intake may have effects that are not known). They should give up their caffeine tablets perhaps but not the coffee. IMHO the statement "Coffee may make diabetes worse" is absolute tripe. Newspapers should let science journalists write about science because unfortunately people believe what they read in the papers.

Here is a link to a summary of this research written by a journalist that understands what they are writing about (from the UK National Health Service):

http://www.nhs.uk/News/2007/January08/Pages/Cutoutcoffeediabeticsurged.aspx

And 2 brief quotes:

"the authors acknowledge that it is uncertain how caffeine affects diabetics"

"The authors themselves point out that the reverse pattern is seen overnight, where caffeine appears to reduce blood sugar levels."

Java wrote:[
Again you are missing the point of the article and making the same mistake that a previous poster poster did. The research you are pointing out is the potential effect of coffee on preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes. This study is about the potential effects of caffeine once you have type 2 diabetes.


IMHO they are one and the same. You develop insulin resistance and move into a category we call diabetic and years later your insulin resistance gets worse and your control gets worse - its an inexorable progression that most of the current treatments dont stop.


I rest my case your honour :-)
Chris

[robertmc]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Thanks Chris

That article is very well presented, and makes a lot of sense. It takes a lot of the hype out of the newspaper journalist beat up of the information.

So from that study we dont really dont gain much new or useful information at all, other than that there are more investigations required.

Thanks again for your tenacity to scientific correctness, and thanks too Javaphile for bringing the newspaper headline to our attention it helps promote dialogue.

I enjoy these threads

Robert

[cjhfield]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

Yes this mickey mouse "study" was picked up by seemingly every major news service in the western world and has been read by millions. So a whole heap of people are talked out of drinking coffee when the current evidence is exactly the opposite of what was claimed. Still, we will know which journalists will be first against the wall when the revolution comes ;-)

Ill go back to my padded cell now.

Chris

[Dimal]

Re: Coffee may make diabetes worse

I just gotta ask.... Youre not a little Penguin are you happyfeet? :

Mal.