Drinking coffee may reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis

People who drink four to six cups of coffee a day may be less likely to develop multiple sclerosis, according to an international research published on February 26th. "Caffeine intake was associated with reduced risk of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases," said study author Ellen Mowry, of Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. "Our study shows that coffee intake may also protect against multiple sclerosis, reinforcing the idea that the substance may have protective effects on the brain," he added. An American study and another Swedish - conducted before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Washington - compared, each over 1,000 MS patients with a similar number of healthy people. Scientists tracked the amount of coffee that individuals with multiple sclerosis ate one, five and ten years before symptoms start to appear. After considering other factors such as age, sex, smoking, body mass index and sun exposure, the Swedish study found that "compared with people who drank at least six cups of coffee a day a year before symptoms appear, those who drank no more than once coffee and half a day increased the risk of developing multiple sclerosis. " Similar protective effects were observed in those who drank a lot of coffee between five and ten years before symptoms appear. The American study showed that that "people who did not drink coffee would be one and a half more likely to develop the disease than those who drank four or more cups of coffee a day the year before the onset of symptoms." More studies are needed to determine if the caffeine in coffee has an impact on relapses, long-term disabilities related to multiple sclerosis. The incurable disease of the central nervous system affects 2.3 million people worldwide. The study was conducted by the Medical Research Council Swedish, by the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institute on Aging.
Source: Revista Cafeicultura