For all those coffee lovers out there

 2-3 cups of coffee a day may reduce kidney injury risk by 23%

I love my coffee as to many of us. I never knew that coffee could be good for us. The following is taken from Medical News Today and the link to the entire story is above.

The most beneficial amount of coffee

For the study, the researchers used data from 14,207 adults ages 45 – 64 from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study.

The researchers assessed the participants’ coffee consumption during their first visit via a food frequency questionnaire. In total, they found:

·        27% never drank coffee

·        14% drank less than a cup of coffee per day

·        19% drank 1 cup per day

·        23% drank 2-3 cups per day

·        17% drank more than 3 cups per day

To define acute kidney injury, the researchers looked at rates of hospitalization, including an International Classification of Diseases code indicating AKI throughout a median period of 24 years follow-up. They noted 1,694 cases of incident AKI during the follow-up period.

After adjusting for demographic factors, they found that individuals who consumed any amount of coffee had an 11% lower risk of developing AKI compared to individuals who did not consume the beverage.

The researchers further noted a dose-dependent relationship between AKI and coffee intake, with those consuming 2-3 cups of coffee per day experiencing the most substantial risk reduction.

Coffee’s protective effects

When asked what might explain the potential protective effects of coffee for acute kidney injury, Dr. Matthew Weir, professor of medicine and the head of the Division of Nephrology at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today that the study did not offer clues.

“[The researchers] provide theories, but there are numerous problems with retrospective data review, which may confound the observations and limit the validity. At least there was no evidence of harm,” said Dr. Weir.

In the study, the researchers noted their findings might be the result of bioactive compounds in coffee that improve perfusion and oxygen utilization in the kidneys.

Dr. Kalie L. Tommerdahl, assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of Colorado, and Dr. Chirag Rohit Parikh, director of the Division of Nephrology at Johns Hopkins University, who were both authors of the study, told MNT that they conducted a companion study to further understand the potential mechanisms.

“We studied ten youths aged 12 to 21 years old with type 1 diabetes and aimed to assess the effects of a confirmed 7-day course of a single daily Starbucks cold brew (325 ml, 175mg caffeine) on [various measures of renal function],” they said.

“The study included a small sample size. While it confirmed that we can effectively assess these intrarenal measures in adolescents with type 1 diabetes, we did not find any differences in [renal function] following a short course of daily coffee consumption,” they added.

The researchers concluded that they needed to further evaluate the physiological mechanisms underlying the potentially protective effects of coffee consumption in larger studies of a longer duration.

“In addition, consumption of other caffeinated beverages such as tea or soda should also be considered a possible confounding factor. Further limitations include reliance on the inclusion of AKI on the problem list during inpatient hospitalization and the potential for confounding effects from differences in etiologies for participant hospitalization,” they said.