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American Morning
Coffee Can Reduce Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Aired January 06, 2004 - 07:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Medical news this morning, good news probably for those of you who are tossing back that second cup of coffee already today, including me. A study of more than 125,000 people indicating that drinking the brew, and a good amount of it, could reduce the risk of developing a common form of diabetes. Intriguing study.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with details.
It kind of surprised us this morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you've had two so far?
HEMMER: Two so far.
GUPTA: How many are you going to have today, do you think?
HEMMER: I don't know, maybe one more.
GUPTA: Well, about six...
HEMMER: Maybe two more.
GUPTA: ... is what they looked at for this study. Lots.
HEMMER: Six minimum?
GUPTA: Six cups of coffee, yes, lots of coffee. And no one's ready to suggest that people start drinking that much coffee to try and ward off Type 2 Diabetes, which is what you were just mentioning, one of the more common types of diabetes. But there's been sort of a medical lore out there for some time that perhaps the caffeine specifically in coffee could have a beneficial effect both on blood sugar as well as insulin, possibly decreasing the amount of diabetes.
Specifically, it's actually a study that comes out of Harvard. It's a long-term study looking at 125,000 participants and monitoring their drinking, eating, all sorts of lifestyle habits over about 12 years. And what they found here was six or more cups a day, men had the greatest improvement in terms of their diabetes risk, decreasing that by about 50 percent. Women decreasing their diabetes risk by about 30 percent.
Again, the researchers are being very clear about this. No one is ready to say that coffee, in and of itself, six cups a day, is going to be the answer to diabetes. But there does appear to be this association here, maybe not a cause and effect, but an association that's worth exploring.
HEMMER: You mentioned the word surprised. I was, too, by this. For years we've been told coffee is bad for you in a number, a variety of different ways.
The caffeine itself, though, how does it impact on diabetes?
GUPTA: Yes, well, and that's the thing, you know. So when you look at coffee, first of all, it's a pretty complicated beverage. I mean most people drink it for the caffeine. I know you do, being an early morning guy. But, you know, it also has various anti-oxidants, there's various minerals and things like that. You're right, most likely the causative effect here is going to be the caffeine.
Part of the reason people stand convinced of that is because if you look at uncaffeinated, decaffeinated, rather, coffee, you're not going to get the same beneficial effect in terms of Type 2 Diabetes. So that sort of makes it more likely, in fact, that it is the caffeine in the coffee.
Why exactly is that occurring to someone stabilize insulin levels, somehow put blood sugar in check? Perhaps that's going to be something that people are going to need to look into.
Again, no one's saying six cups a day, though.
HEMMER: Two and counting.
GUPTA: Two.
HEMMER: Talk to you later, Sanjay.
GUPTA: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 6, 2004 - 07:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Medical news this morning, good news probably for those of you who are tossing back that second cup of coffee already today, including me. A study of more than 125,000 people indicating that drinking the brew, and a good amount of it, could reduce the risk of developing a common form of diabetes. Intriguing study.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with details.
It kind of surprised us this morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you've had two so far?
HEMMER: Two so far.
GUPTA: How many are you going to have today, do you think?
HEMMER: I don't know, maybe one more.
GUPTA: Well, about six...
HEMMER: Maybe two more.
GUPTA: ... is what they looked at for this study. Lots.
HEMMER: Six minimum?
GUPTA: Six cups of coffee, yes, lots of coffee. And no one's ready to suggest that people start drinking that much coffee to try and ward off Type 2 Diabetes, which is what you were just mentioning, one of the more common types of diabetes. But there's been sort of a medical lore out there for some time that perhaps the caffeine specifically in coffee could have a beneficial effect both on blood sugar as well as insulin, possibly decreasing the amount of diabetes.
Specifically, it's actually a study that comes out of Harvard. It's a long-term study looking at 125,000 participants and monitoring their drinking, eating, all sorts of lifestyle habits over about 12 years. And what they found here was six or more cups a day, men had the greatest improvement in terms of their diabetes risk, decreasing that by about 50 percent. Women decreasing their diabetes risk by about 30 percent.
Again, the researchers are being very clear about this. No one is ready to say that coffee, in and of itself, six cups a day, is going to be the answer to diabetes. But there does appear to be this association here, maybe not a cause and effect, but an association that's worth exploring.
HEMMER: You mentioned the word surprised. I was, too, by this. For years we've been told coffee is bad for you in a number, a variety of different ways.
The caffeine itself, though, how does it impact on diabetes?
GUPTA: Yes, well, and that's the thing, you know. So when you look at coffee, first of all, it's a pretty complicated beverage. I mean most people drink it for the caffeine. I know you do, being an early morning guy. But, you know, it also has various anti-oxidants, there's various minerals and things like that. You're right, most likely the causative effect here is going to be the caffeine.
Part of the reason people stand convinced of that is because if you look at uncaffeinated, decaffeinated, rather, coffee, you're not going to get the same beneficial effect in terms of Type 2 Diabetes. So that sort of makes it more likely, in fact, that it is the caffeine in the coffee.
Why exactly is that occurring to someone stabilize insulin levels, somehow put blood sugar in check? Perhaps that's going to be something that people are going to need to look into.
Again, no one's saying six cups a day, though.
HEMMER: Two and counting.
GUPTA: Two.
HEMMER: Talk to you later, Sanjay.
GUPTA: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
