Coffee reduces risk of oral cancers and diabetes

Coffee is like a superhero when it comes to fighting the major chronic diseases that plague the modern world. Just this month new research finds that caffeinated coffee may reduce your risk of dying from cancers of the mouth as well as your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Coffee reduces the risk of death from oral cancers

In a study sponsored by the American Cancer Society researchers found that the more caffeinated coffee people drink the lower is their risk of dying from oral/pharyngeal cancer.
The researchers examined 26 years of data from the Cancer Prevention Study II, a prospective U.S. cohort study of 968,432 men and women begun in 1982. They found that people who drank more than four cups of caffeinated coffee per day were at about half the risk of death of these often fatal cancers compared to those who never or only occasionally drank coffee.

The study, published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology, also found that the benefits of coffee are dose dependent. For each daily cup of coffee consumed, the risk of dying of oral cancers declined.

The same benefits were not found in decaf coffee or tea. The scientists aren’t sure exactly how coffee might work to fight cancer. They noted that coffee contains a variety of antioxidants, polyphenols and other active compounds that may protect against the development and progression of cancers. In fact, coffee is the largest source of antioxidants in the diets of many Americans, rather than fruits and vegetables.

As with oral cancers, another study also found coffee’s benefits to be dose-dependent. With each additional cup of coffee consumed the risk of developing type 2 diabetes decreased by seven to eight per cent.

And as with oral cancers, scientists are not sure of the exact biologic mechanism by which coffee affects diabetes. One theory suggests that caffeine in coffee stimulates the metabolism and increases energy expenditure. Other theories hypothesize that coffee components influence glucose balance or improve insulin sensitivity.