Caffeine in Your Blood Could Affect Body Fat And Diabetes Risk, Study Reveals

 

And I'm doing it to lower my risk of dementia and Parkinsions. This research doesn't tell me enough to follow it.

How coffee protects against Parkinson’s Aug. 2014  

Coffee May Lower Your Risk of Dementia Feb. 2013

Coffee drinkers rejoice! Drinking coffee could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease 

And this: Coffee's Phenylindanes Fight Alzheimer's Plaque December 2018

I think I'm in this category:  I never get the jitters or flushed skin.

Genetics determine how much coffee you can drink before it goes wrong

I'm doing a 12 cup pot of coffee a day to lessen my chance of dementia and Parkinsons. Tell me EXACTLY how much coffee to drink for that and I'll change. Yep, that is a lot more than the 400mg. suggested limit, I don't care! Preventing dementia and Parkinsons is vastly more important than whatever problems it can cause! 

Does this research suggest I should drink even more coffee to keep the caffeine levels up in my blood?

Caffeine in Your Blood Could Affect Body Fat And Diabetes Risk, Study Reveals

David Nield

Thu, January 30, 2025 at 5:14 PM EST

3 min read

caffeine in your blood could affect the amount of body fat you carry, a factor that in turn could determine your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Those are the findings of a 2023 study that used genetic markers to establish a more definitive link between caffeine levels, BMI, and type 2 diabetes risk.

The research team, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the University of Bristol in the UK, and Imperial College London in the UK, said calorie-free caffeinated drinks could be explored as a potential means of helping reduce body fat levels.

"Genetically predicted higher plasma caffeine concentrations were associated with lower BMI and whole body fat mass," the researchers wrote in their paper, published in March 2023.

"Furthermore, genetically predicted higher plasma caffeine concentrations were associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Approximately half of the effect of caffeine on type 2 diabetes liability was estimated to be mediated through BMI reduction."

Caffeine in your blood may help determine your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. (StockSnap/Pixabay)

The study involved data from just under 10,000 people collected from existing genetic databases, focusing on variations in or near specific genes known to be associated with the speed at which caffeine is broken down.

In general, those with variations affecting the genes – namely CYP1A2 and a gene that regulates it, called AHR – tend to break caffeine down more slowly, allowing it to remain in the blood longer. Yet they also tend to drink less caffeine in general.

An approach called Mendelian randomization was used to determine likely causal relationships between the presence of the variations, illnesses like diabetes, body mass, and lifestyle factors.