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- <html>
- <head><title>Caffeine: A vitamin-like nutrient, or adaptogen</title></head>
- <body>
- <h1>
- Caffeine: A vitamin-like nutrient, or adaptogen
- </h1>
- <p>
- <strong>
- Questions about tea and coffee, cancer and other degenerative diseases, and the hormones.</strong>
- </p>
- <p></p>
- <p>
- There is a popular health-culture that circulates mistaken ideas about nutrition, and coffee drinking has
- been a perennial target of this culture. It is commonly said that coffee is a drug, not a food, and that its
- drug action is harmful, and that this harm is not compensated by any nutritional benefit. Most physicians
- subscribe to most of these "common sense" ideas about coffee, and form an authoritative barrier against the
- assimilation of scientific information about coffee.
- </p>
- <p>
- I think it would be good to reconsider coffee"s place in the diet and in health care.
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong>Coffee drinkers have a lower incidence of thyroid disease, including cancer,
- thannon-drinkers.</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong>Caffeine protects the liver from alcohol and acetaminophen (Tylenol) and other toxins, and coffee
- drinkers are less likely than people who don"t use coffee to have elevated serum enzymes and other
- indications of liver damage.</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong>Caffeine protects against cancer caused by radiation, chemical carcinogens, viruses, and
- estrogens.</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong>Caffeine synergizes with progesterone, and increases its concentration in blood and tissues.</strong
- >
- </p>
-
- <p>
- <strong>Cystic breast disease is not caused by caffeine, in fact caffeine"s effects are likely to be
- protective; a variety of studies show that coffee, tea, and caffeine are protective against breast
- cancer.</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong>Coffee provides very significant quantities of magnesium, as well as other nutrients including
- vitamin B1.</strong>
- </p>
- <p><strong>Caffeine "improves efficiency of fuel use" and performance: JC Wagner 1989.</strong></p>
- <p><strong>Coffee drinkers have a low incidence of suicide.</strong></p>
- <p><strong>Caffeine supports serotonin uptake in nerves, and inhibits blood platelet aggregation.</strong></p>
- <p>
- <strong>Coffee drinkers have been found to have lower cadmium in tissues; coffee making removes heavy metals
- from water.</strong>
- </p>
-
- <p><strong>Coffee inhibits iron absorption if taken with meals, helping to prevent iron overload.</strong></p>
- <p>
- <strong>Caffeine, like niacin, inhibits apoptosis, protecting against stress-induced cell death, without
- interfering with normal cell turnover.</strong>
- </p>
- <p><strong>Caffeine can prevent nerve cell death.</strong></p>
- <p><strong>Coffee (or caffeine) prevents Parkinson"s Disease (Ross, et al., 2000).</strong></p>
- <p>
- <strong>The prenatal growth retardation that can be caused by feeding large amounts of caffeine is prevented
- by supplementing the diet with sugar.</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong>Caffeine stops production of free radicals by inhibiting xanthine oxidase, an important factor in
- tissue stress.
- </strong>
- </p>
-
- <p>
- <strong>Caffeine lowers serum potassium following exercise; stabilizes platelets, reducing thromboxane
- production.</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- One definition of a vitamin is that it is an organic chemical found in foods, the lack of which <strong><em
- >causes</em></strong> a specific <strong><em>disease,</em></strong>
- or group of diseases. A variety of substances that have been proposed to be vitamins haven"t been recognized
- as being essential, and some substances that aren"t essential are sometimes called vitamins. Sometimes these
- issues haven"t had enough scientific investigation, but often nonscientific forces regulate nutritional
- ideas.
- </p>
- <p>
- The definition of "a disease" isn"t as clear as text-book writers have implied, and "causality" in biology
- is always more complex than we like to believe.
- </p>
- <p>
- Nutrition is one of the most important sciences, and should certainly be as prestigious and well financed as
- astrophysics and nuclear physics, but while people say "it doesn"t take a brain surgeon to figure that out,"
- no one says "it doesn"t take a nutritionist to understand that." Partly, that"s because medicine treated
- scientific nutrition as an illegitimate step-child, and refused throughout the 20th century to recognize
- that it is a central part of scientific health care. In the 1970s, physicians and dietitians were still
- ridiculing the idea that vitamin E could prevent or cure diseases of the circulatory system, and babies as
- well as older people were given "total intravenous nutrition" which lacked nutrients that are essential to
- life, growth, immunity, and healing. Medicine and science are powerfully institutionalized, but no
- institution or profession has existed for the purpose of encouraging people to act reasonably.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- In this environment, most people have felt that subtleties of definition, logic and evidence weren"t
- important for nutrition, and a great amount of energy has gone into deciding whether there were "four food
- groups" or "seven food groups" or a "nutritional pyramid." The motives behind governmental and
- quasi-governmental nutrition policies usually represent something besides a simple scientific concern for
- good health, as when health care institutions say that Mexican babies should begin eating beans when they
- reach the age of six months, or that non-whites don"t need milk after they are weaned. In a culture that
- discourages prolonged breast feeding, the effects of these doctrines can be serious.
- </p>
- <p>
- After a century of scientific nutrition, public nutritional policies are doing approximately as much harm as
- good, and they are getting worse faster than they are getting better..
- </p>
- <p>
- In this culture, what we desperately need is a recognition of the complexity of life, and of the
- political-ecological situation we find ourselves in. Any thinking which isn"t "system thinking" should be
- treated with caution, and most contemporary thinking about health neglects to consider relevant parts of the
- problem-system. "Official" recommendations about salt, cholesterol, iron, unsaturated and saturated fats,
- and soybeans have generally been inappropriate, unscientific, and strongly motivated by business interests
- rather than by biological knowledge.
- </p>
- <p>
- Definitions have rarely distinguished clearly between nutrients and drugs, and new commercial motives are
- helping to further blur the distinctions.
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong>Essential nutrients, defensive (detoxifying, antistress) nutrients, hormone-modulating nutrients,
- self-actualization nutrients, growth regulating nutrients, structure modifiers, life extension agents,
- transgenerationally active (imprinting)</strong>
- <strong>nutrients--</strong>the line between nutrients and biological modifiers often depends on the
- situation. Vitamins D and A clearly have hormone-like properties, and vitamin E"s effects, and those of many
- terpenoids and steroids and bioflavonoids found in foods, include hormone-like actions as well as
- antioxidant and pro-oxidant functions. The concept of "adaptogen" can include things that act like both
- drugs and nutrients.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Some studies have suggested that trace amounts of nutrients could be passed on for a few generations, but
- the evidence now indicates that these transgenerational effects are caused by phenomena such as
- "imprinting." But the hereditary effects of nutrients are so complex that their recognition would force
- nutrition to be recognized as one of the most complex sciences, interwoven with the complexities of growth
- and development.
- </p>
- <p>
- The idea that poor nutrition stunts growth has led to the idea that good nutrition can be defined in terms
- of the rate of growth and the size ultimately reached. In medicine, it is common to refer to an obese
- specimen as "well nourished," as if quantity of food and quantity of tissue were necessarily good things.
- But poisons can stimulate growth ("hormesis"), and food restriction can extend longevity. <strong>We still
- have to determine basic things such as the optimal rate of growth, and the optimal size.</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- Nutrition textbooks flatly describe caffeine as a drug, not a nutrient, as if it were obvious that nutrients
- can"t be drugs. Any of the essential nutrients, if used in isolation, can be used as a drug, for a specific
- effect on the organism that it wouldn"t normally have when eaten as a component of ordinary food. And
- natural foods contain thousands of chemicals, other than the essential nutrients. Many of these are called
- nonessential nutrients, but their importance is being recognized increasingly. The truth is that we aren"t
- sure what they "aren"t essential" for. Until we have more definite knowledge about the organism I don"t
- think we should categorize things so absolutely as drugs or nutrients.
- </p>
- <p>
- The bad effects ascribed to coffee usually involve administering large doses in a short period of time.
- While caffeine is commonly said to raise blood pressure, this effect is slight, and may not occur during the
- normal use of coffee. Experimenters typically ignore essential factors. Drinking plain water can cause an
- extreme rise in blood pressure, especially in old people, and eating a meal (containing carbohydrate) lowers
- blood pressure. The increased metabolic rate caffeine produces increases the cellular consumption of
- glucose, so experiments that study the effects of coffee taken on an empty stomach are measuring the effects
- of increased temperature and metabolic rate, combined with increased adrenaline (resulting from the decrease
- of glucose), and so confuse the issue of caffeine"s intrinsic effects.
- </p>
- <p>
- In one study (Krasil"nikov, 1975), the drugs were introduced directly into the carotid artery to study the
- effects on the blood vessels in the brain. Caffeine increased the blood volume in the brain, while
- decreasing the resistance of the vessels, and this effect is what would be expected from its stimulation of
- brain metabolism and the consequent increase in carbon dioxide, which dilates blood vessels.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- In the whole body, increased carbon dioxide also decreases vascular resistance, and this allows circulation
- to increase, while the heart"s work is decreased, relative to the amount of blood pumped. But when the whole
- body"s metabolism is increased, adequate nutrition is crucial.
- </p>
- <p>
- In animal experiments that have been used to argue that pregnant women shouldn"t drink coffee, large doses
- of caffeine given to pregnant animals retarded the growth of the fetuses. But simply giving more sucrose
- prevented the growth retardation. Since caffeine tends to correct some of the metabolic problems that could
- interfere with pregnancy, it is possible that rationally constructed experiments could show benefits to the
- fetus from the mother"s use of coffee, for example by lowering bilirubin and serotonin, preventing
- hypoglycemia, increasing uterine perfusion and progesterone synthesis, synergizing with thyroid and cortisol
- to promote lung maturation, and providing additional nutrients.
- </p>
- <p>
- One of the most popular misconceptions about caffeine is that it causes fibrocystic breast disease. Several
- groups demonstrated pretty clearly that it doesn"t, but there was no reason that they should have had to
- bother, except for an amazingly incompetent, but highly publicized, series of articles--classics of their
- kind--by J. P. Minton, of Ohio State University. Minton neglected to notice that the healthy breast contains
- a high percentage of fat, and that the inflamed and diseased breast has an increased proportion of glandular
- material Fat cells have a low level of cyclic AMP, a regulatory substance that is associated with normal
- cellular differentiation and function, and is involved in mediating caffeine"s ability to inhibit cancer
- cell multiplication. Minton argued that cAMP increases progressively with the degree of breast disease, up
- to cancer, and that cAMP is increased by caffeine. A variety of substances other than caffeine that inhibit
- the growth of cancer cells (as well as normal breast cells) act by <em>increasing</em> the amount of cyclic
- AMP, while estrogen lowers the amount of cAMP and increases cell growth. Minton"s argument should have been
- to use more caffeine, in proportion to the degree of breast disease, if he were arguing logically from his
- evidence. Caffeine"s effect on the breast resembles that of progesterone, opposing estrogen"s effects.
- </p>
- <p>
- Many studies over the last 30 years have shown caffeine to be highly protective against all kinds of
- carcinogenesis, including estrogen"s carcinogenic effects on the breast. Caffeine is now being used along
- with some of the standard cancer treatments, to improve their effects or to reduce their side effects. There
- are substances in the coffee berry besides caffeine that protect against mutations and cancer, and that have
- shown strong therapeutic effects against cancer. Although many plant substances are protective against
- mutations and cancer, I don"t know of any that is as free of side effects as coffee.
- </p>
- <p>
- To talk about caffeine, it"s necessary to talk about uric acid. <strong>
- Uric acid, synthesized in the body, is both a stimulant and a very important antioxidant, and its
- structure is very similar to that of caffeine.
- </strong>
- A deficiency of uric acid is a serious problem. Caffeine and uric acid are in the group of chemicals called
- purines.
- </p>
- <p>
- Purines (along with pyrimidines) are components of the nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, but they have many other
- functions. In general, substances related to purines are stimulants, and substances related to pyrimidines
- are sedatives.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the basic purine structure is oxidized, it becomes in turn hypoxanthine, xanthine, and uric acid, by
- the addition of oxygen atoms. When methyl groups (CH<sub>3</sub>) are added to nitrogens in the purine ring,
- the molecule becomes less water soluble. Xanthine (an intermediate in purine metabolism) has two oxygen
- atoms, and when three methyl groups are added, it becomes trimethyl xanthine, or caffeine. With two methyl
- groups, it is theophylline, which is named for its presence in tea. We have enzyme systems which can add and
- subtract methyl groups<strong>;</strong> for example, when babies are given theophylline, they can convert
- it into caffeine.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- We have enzymes that can modify all of the methyl groups and oxygen atoms of caffeine and the other purine
- derivatives. Caffeine is usually excreted in a modified form, for example as a methylated uric acid.
- </p>
- <p>
- One of the ways in which uric acid functions as an "antioxidant" is by modifying the activity of the enzyme
- xanthine oxidase, which in stress can become a dangerous source of free radicals. Caffeine also restrains
- this enzyme. There are several other ways in which uric acid and caffeine (and a variety of intermediate
- xanthines) protect against oxidative damage. Coffee drinkers, for example, have been found to have lower
- levels of cadmium in their kidneys than people who don"t use coffee, and coffee is known to inhibit the
- absorption of iron by the intestine, helping to prevent iron overload.
- </p>
- <p>
- Toxins and stressors often kill cells, for example in the brain, liver, and immune system, by causing the
- cells to expend energy faster than it can be replaced. There is an enzyme system that repairs genetic
- damage, called "PARP." The activation of this enzyme is a major energy drain, and substances that inhibit it
- can prevent the death of the cell. Niacin and caffeine can inhibit this enzyme sufficiently to prevent this
- characteristic kind of cell death, without preventing the normal cellular turnover<strong>;</strong> that
- is, they don"t produce tumors by preventing the death of cells that aren"t needed.
- </p>
- <p>
- The purines are important in a great variety of regulatory processes, and caffeine fits into this complex
- system in other ways that are often protective against stress. For example, it has been proposed that tea
- can protect against circulatory disease by preventing abnormal clotting, and the mechanism seems to be that
- caffeine (or theophylline) tends to restrain stress-induced platelet aggregaton.
- </p>
- <p>
- When platelets clump, they release various factors that contribute to the development of a clot. Serotonin
- is one of these, and is released by other kinds of cell, including mast cells and basophils and nerve cells.
- Serotonin produces vascular spasms and increased blood pressure, blood vessel leakiness and inflammation,
- and the release of many other stress mediators. Caffeine, besides inhibiting the platelet aggregation, also
- tends to inhibit the release of serotonin, or to promote its uptake and binding.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- J. W. Davis, et al., 1996, found that high uric acid levels seem to protect against the development of
- Parkinson"s disease. They ascribed this effect to uric acid"s antioxidant function. Coffee drinking, which
- <em>lowers</em> uric acid levels, nevertheless appeared to be much more strongly protective against
- Parkinson"s disease than uric acid.
- </p>
- <p>
- Possibly more important than coffee"s ability to protect the health is the way it does it. The studies that
- have tried to gather evidence to show that coffee is harmful, and found the opposite, have provided insight
- into several diseases. For example, coffee"s effects on serotonin are very similar to carbon dioxide"s, and
- the thyroid hormone"s. Noticing that coffee drinking is associated with a low incidence of Parkinson"s
- disease could focus attention on the ways that thyroid and carbon dioxide and serotonin, estrogen, mast
- cells, histamine and blood clotting interact to produce nerve cell death.
- </p>
- <p>
- Thinking about how caffeine can be beneficial across such a broad spectrum of problems can give us a
- perspective on the similarities of their underlying physiology and biochemistry, expanding the implications
- of stress, biological energy, and adaptability.
- </p>
- <p>
- The observation that coffee drinkers have a low incidence of suicide, for example, might be physiologically
- related to the large increase in suicide rate among people who use the newer antidepressants called
- "serotonin reuptake inhibitors." Serotonin excess causes several of the features of depression, such as
- learned helplessness and reduced metabolic rate, while coffee stimulates the <em>uptake</em> (inactivation
- or storage) of serotonin, increases metabolic energy, and tends to improve mood. In animal studies, it
- reverses the state of helplessness or despair, often more effectively than so-called antidepressants.
- </p>
- <p>
- The research on caffeine"s effects on blood pressure, and on the use of fuel by the more actively
- metabolizing cells, hasn"t clarified its effects on respiration and nutrition, but some of these experiments
- confirm things that coffee drinkers usually learn for themselves.
- </p>
- <p>
- Often, a woman who thinks that she has symptoms of hypoglycemia says that drinking even the smallest amount
- of coffee makes her anxious and shaky. Sometimes, I have suggested that they try drinking about two ounces
- of coffee with cream or milk along with a meal. It"s common for them to find that this reduces their
- symptoms of hypoglycemia, and allows them to be symptom-free between meals. Although we don"t know exactly
- why caffeine improves an athlete"s endurance, I think the same processes are involved when coffee increases
- a person"s "endurance" in ordinary activities.
- </p>
- <p>
- Caffeine has remarkable parallels to thyroid and progesterone, and the use of coffee or tea can help to
- maintain their production, or compensate for their deficiency. Women spontaneously drink more coffee
- premenstrually, and since caffeine is known to increase the concentration of progesterone in the blood and
- in the brain, this is obviously a spontaneous and rational form of self-medication, though medical editors
- like to see things causally reversed, and blame the coffee drinking for the symptoms it is actually
- alleviating. Some women have noticed that the effect of a progesterone supplement is stronger when they take
- it with coffee. This is similar to the synergy between thyroid and progesterone, which is probably involved,
- since caffeine tends to <em>locally</em> activate thyroid secretion by a variety of mechanisms, increasing
- cyclic AMP and decreasing serotonin in thyroid cells, for example, and also by lowering the systemic stress
- mediators.
- </p>
- <p>
- Medical editors like to publish articles that reinforce important prejudices, even if, scientifically, they
- are trash. The momentum of a bad idea can probably be measured by the tons of glossy paper that have gone
- into its development. Just for the sake of the environment, it would be nice if editors would try to think
- in terms of evidence and biological mechanisms, rather than stereotypes.
- </p>
- <p>
- <strong><h3>REFERENCES</h3></strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- Fiziol Zh SSSR Im I M Sechenova 1975 Oct;61(10):1531-8. <strong>[Changes in the resistance and capacity of
- the cerebral vascular bed under the influence of vasoactive substances].</strong> [Article in Russian]
- Krasil'nikov, V.G. Effects of intracarotid injections of vasoactive agents on cerebrovascular resistance
- (CVR) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) were studied in hemodynamically isolated brain of cats. Perfusion
- pressure shifts at a constant blood volume perfusion reflected CVR changes, and changes of venous outflow -
- CBV alterations. Administration of adrenaline, serotonin, and angiotensine was followed mainly by an
- increase of CVR and a decrease of CBV. The <strong>CVR</strong>
- <strong>
- could be reduced by isopropilnoradrenaline, acetylcholine, histamine, and caffeine.</strong>
- <strong>CBV was decreased after isopropilnoradrenaline, acetycholine, histamine injections and increased by
- caffeine.
- </strong>The possible role of the active changes of cerebral capacitance vessels in the transcapillary fluid
- exchange is discussed. Capacitance vessels active responses are supposed to entail wrong results when using
- certain techniques for measurement of cerebral blood flow and metabolism.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1999 Apr;220(4):244-8. <strong>The prevention of lung cancer induced by a
- tobacco-specific carcinogen in rodents by green and black Tea.</strong> Chung FL "The oxidation products
- found in black tea, thearubigins and theaflavins, also possess antioxidant activity, suggesting that black
- tea may also inhibit NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis. Indeed, bioassays in A/J mice have shown that black tea
- given as drinking water retarded the development of lung cancer caused by NNK." "We conducted a 2-year
- lifetime bioassay in F344 rats to determine <strong>whether black tea and caffeine are protective against
- lung tumorigenesis induced by NNK. Our studies in both mice and rats have generated important new data
- that support green and black tea and</strong>
- <strong>
- caffeine as potential preventive agents against lung cancer, suggesting that a closer examination of the
- roles of tea and caffeine on lung cancer</strong>
- in smokers may be warranted."
- </p>
- <p>
- Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2000 May;66(1):39-45. <strong>Caffeine-induced increases in the brain and plasma
- concentrations of neuroactive steroids in the rat.</strong> Concas A, Porcu P, Sogliano C, Serra M,
- Purdy RH, Biggio G. "A single intraperitoneal injection of caffeine induced dose- and time-dependent
- increases in the concentrations of pregnenolone, progesterone, and 3alpha-hydroxy-5alpha-pregnan-20-one
- (allopregnanolone) in the cerebral cortex." "Caffeine also increased the plasma<strong>
- concentrations of pregnenolone and progesterone with a dose-response relation similar to that observed
- in the brain . . ."
- </strong>
-
- "Moreover, the brain and plasma concentrations of pregnenolone, progesterone, and allopregnanolone were not
- affected by caffeine in adrenalectomized-orchiectomized rats."
- </p>
- <p>
- Cancer Res 1998 Sep 15;58(18):4096-101. <strong>Inhibition of</strong>
- <strong>lung carcinogenesis by black tea in Fischer rats treated with a tobacco-specific carcinogen:
- caffeine as an important constituent.</strong> Chung FL, Wang M, Rivenson A, Iatropoulos MJ, Reinhardt
- JC, Pittman B, Ho CT, Amin SG. "The NNK-treated group, given 2% black tea, showed a significant reduction of
- the <strong>total lung tumor (adenomas, adenocarcinomas, and adenosquamous carcinomas) incidence from 47% to
- 19%, whereas the group given 1% and 0.5% black tea showed no change. The 2% tea also reduced liver tumor
- incidence</strong> induced by NNK from 34% in the group given only deionized water to 12%." <strong>"The
- most unexpected finding was the remarkable reduction of the lung tumor incidence, from 47% to 10%, in
- the group treated with 680 ppm caffeine, a concentration equivalent to that found in the 2% tea. This
- incidence is comparable to background</strong> levels seen in the control group. This study demonstrated
- for the first time in a 2-year lifetime bioassay that black tea protects against lung tumorigenesis in F344
- rats, <strong>and this effect appears to be attributed, to a significant extent, to caffeine as an active
- ingredient of tea."</strong>
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Cancer Lett 1991 Mar;56(3):245-50.<strong>
- Inhibition by caffeine of ovarian hormone-induced mammary gland tumorigenesis in female GR mice.</strong
- > VanderPloeg LC, Welsch CW. "Hormone treatment induced mammary tumors in 95-100% of the mice. Caffeine
- treatment significantly (P less than 0.05) reduced the mean number of mammary tumors per mouse and
- significantly (P less than 0.05) increased the mean latency period of mammary tumor appearance."
- </p>
- <p>
- Breast Cancer Res Treat 1991 Nov;19(3):269-75.<strong>
- Caffeine inhibits development of benign mammary gland tumors in carcinogen-treated female Sprague-Dawley
- rats.</strong> Wolfrom DM, Rao AR, Welsch CW.
- </p>
- <p>
- Cancer 1985 Oct 15;56(8):1977-81.<strong>
- The inhibitory effect of caffeine on hormone-induced rat breast cancer.</strong> Petrek JA, Sandberg WA,
- Cole MN, Silberman MS, Collins DC. "The current investigation examines the effect of two caffeine doses in
- ACI rats with and without diethylstilbestrol (DES). Without DES, cancer did not develop in any of the rats
- receiving either of the two caffeine dosages. With DES, increasing caffeine dosage lengthened the time to
- first cancer, decreased the number of rats that developed cancers, and decreased the number of cancers
- overall." "In conclusion, chronic caffeine ingestion inhibits rat breast cancer, neither by interfering with
- the high prolactin levels--a necessary step in murine tumor development--nor by causing hypocaloric intake."
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Nutr Cancer 1998;30(1):21-4.<strong>
- Association of coffee, green tea, and caffeine intakes with serum concentrations of estradiol and sex
- hormone-binding globulin in premenopausal Japanese women.</strong> Nagata C, Kabuto M, Shimizu H.
- "Although the <strong>effect of caffeine cannot be distinguished from effects of coffee and green tea,
- consumption of caffeine-containing beverages appeared to favorably alter hormone levels associated with
- the risk of developing breast cancer."</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 1992; 11(3):177-89.<strong>
- Caffeine, theophylline, theobromine, and developmental growth of the mouse mammary gland.</strong>
- VanderPloeg LC, Wolfrom DM, Rao AR, Braselton WE, Welsch CW. <strong>"These data demonstrate that certain
- methylxanthines (e.g., caffeine and theophylline) but not others (e.g., theobromine) can significantly
- enhance mammotrophic hormone-induced mammary lobulo-alveolar differentiation
- </strong>
-
- in female Balb/c mice, an effect that appears not to be manifested via a direct action of the
- methylxanthines on the mammary gland."
- </p>
- <p>
- J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 1994;13(2):81-8.<strong>
- Enhancement by caffeine of mammary gland lobulo-alveolar development in mice: a function of increased
- corticosterone.</strong> Welsch CW, VanderPloeg LC. Previously we have reported that the stimulatory
- effect of caffeine on<strong>
- lobulo-alveolar development
- </strong>in the mammary glands of female Balb/c mice is not due to a direct action of the drug on the
- mammary gland but appears to be due to a caffeine-induced alteration of a yet to be defined systemic
- physiological process (VanderPloeg et al., J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 11:177-189, 1992). "In the present
- study, we administered caffeine (via the drinking water, 500 mg/L) to ovariectomized, estrogen- and
- progesterone-treated Balb/c mice. After 30 days of caffeine treatment, a significant (p < 0.001)
- enhancement of lobulo-alveolar development in the mammary glands of the hormone-treated mice, compared with
- hormone treated control mice, was observed."
- </p>
- <p>
- Am J Clin Nutr 1997 Jun;65(6):1826-30. <strong>Dietary caffeine intake and bone status of postmenopausal
- women.</strong> Lloyd T, Rollings N, Eggli DF, Kieselhorst K, Chinchilli VM.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Eur J Epidemiol 1993 May;9(3):293-7. <strong>Unexpected effects of coffee consumption on liver
- enzymes.</strong> Casiglia E, Spolaore P, Ginocchio G, Ambrosio GB. Istituto di Medicina Clinica,
- Universita di Padova, Italy. The effects of regular daily coffee consumption on liver enzymes were studied
- in a large number of subjects from the general population. In coffee drinkers, liver enzymes (gamma-glutamyl
- transferase, alanine-amino transferase, and alkaline phosphatase) and serum bilirubin were lower than in
- non-coffee-drinking subjects or in those consuming less than 3 cups daily. The hypothesis proposed is that
- liver enzymes are a target for caffeine contained in coffee.
- </p>
- <p>
- Anticancer Res 1996 Jan-Feb;16(1):151-3<strong>
- Suppression by coffee cherry of the growth of spontaneous mammary tumours in SHN mice.</strong> Nagasawa
- H, Yasuda M, Sakamoto S, Inatomi H Experimental Animal Research Laboratory, Meiji University, Kanagawa,
- Japan. We previously found that coffee cherry (CC), residue after removal of coffee beans, significantly
- suppressed the development of spontaneous mammary tumours of mice. In this paper, the effects of CC on the
- growth of the palpable size of this type of tumour was examined. Free access as drinking<strong>
- water of 0.5% solution of the hot water extract of CC for 10 days resulted in a marked inhibition of the
- tumour growth: The percent changes of tumour sizes were 53.8 +/- 11.7% and 13.8 +/- 10.9% in the
- </strong>
- control and the experimental groups, respectively. Associated with this, thymidylate synthetase activity in
- the mammary tumours was significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control. Normal and
- preneoplastic mammary gland growth, body weight change and weights and structures of endocrine organs were
- only slightly affected by the treatment. The findings indicate that CC is promising as an antitumour agent.
- </p>
- <p>
- Yakugaku Zasshi 1997 Jul;117(7):448-54. <strong>[Effect of tea extracts, catechin and caffeine against
- type-I allergic reaction].</strong> [Article in Japanese] Shiozaki T, Sugiyama K, Nakazato K, Takeo
- T.<strong>
- "Caffeine also showed a inhibitory effect on the PCA reaction. These results indicate that tea could
- provide a significant protection against the type-I allergic reaction. These findings also suggest that
- tea catechins and caffeine play an important role in having an inhibitory effect on the type-I allergic
- reaction."
- </strong>
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Acta Chir Scand 1989 Jun-Jul;155(6-7):317-20. <strong>Does coffee consumption protect against thyroid
- disease?</strong> Linos A, Linos DA, Vgotza N, Souvatzoglou A, Koutras DA
- </p>
- <p>
- Br J Nutr 1999 Aug;82(2):125-30.<strong>
- Inverse association between coffee drinking and serum uric acid concentrations in middle-aged Japanese
- males.</strong> Kiyohara C, Kono S, Honjo S, Todoroki I, Sakurai Y, Nishiwaki M, Hamada H, Nishikawa H,
- Koga H, Ogawa S, Nakagawa K
- </p>
- <p>
- Cancer Res 1997 Jul 1;57(13):2623-9. <strong>Effects of tea, decaffeinated tea, and caffeine on UVB
- light-induced complete carcinogenesis in SKH-1 mice: demonstration of caffeine as a biologically
- important constituent of tea</strong>. Huang MT, Xie JG, Wang ZY, Ho CT, Lou YR, Wang CX, Hard GC,
- Conney A.H.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Mutat Res 1981 Jun;89(2):161-77. <strong>Non-mutagenicity of urine from coffee drinkers compared with that
- from cigarette smokers.</strong> Aeschbacher HU, Chappuis C.
- </p>
- <p>
- Biol Neonate 1981;40(3-4):196-8. <strong>The effects of maternal carbohydrate (sucrose) supplementation on
- the growth of offspring of pregnancies with habitual caffeine consumption.</strong> Dunlop M, Court JM,
- Larkins RG. "When maternal caffeine (10 mg/kg/day) was consumed together with supplementary sucrose (7
- g/kg/day) the expected offspring growth reduction attributed to caffeine did not occur."
- </p>
- <p>
- Biochim Biophys Acta 1992 Dec 15;1175(1):114-22. <strong>Caffeine promotes survival of cultured sympathetic
- neurons deprived of nerve growth factor through a cAMP-dependent mechanism.</strong> Tanaka S, Koike T.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- JAMA 2000 May 24-31;283(20):2674-9. <strong>Association of coffee and caffeine intake with the risk of
- Parkinson disease.</strong> Ross GW, Abbott RD, Petrovitch H, Morens DM, Grandinetti A, Tung KH, Tanner
- CM, Masaki KH, Blanchette PL, Curb JD, Popper JS, White LR.
- </p>
- <p>
- Farmakol Toksikol 1983 Sep-Oct;46(5):107-11 <strong>[Use of the swimming test for demonstrating
- antidepressive activity of drugs during single and repeated administration].</strong> [Article in
- Russian] Rusakov DIu, Val'dman AV. <strong>
- "The use of the "swimming test" made it possible to identify the activity of tricyclic (desipramine,
- chlorimipramine, amitryptyline) and atypical antidepressants (befuralin, zimelidine, trazodon), that of
- pyrazidol (type A MAO inhibitor) and of a number</strong> of new compounds--derivatives of benzofuran
- and morpholine upon single and chronic administration. To define the method specificity, use was made of the
- neuroleptic haloperidol, the tranquilizer diazepam, and of nembutal, which did not exhibit any activity in
- the test in question.<strong>
- Psychostimulants (amphetamine, caffeine) dramatically increased the time of active swimming. The effect
- lasted throughout all the 30 minutes of testing, which is not characteristic for
- antidepressants."</strong>
- </p>
- <p>
- Gen Pharmacol 1996 Jan;27(1):167-70 <strong>The influence of antagonists of poly(ADP-ribose) metabolism on
- acetaminophen hepatotoxicity.</strong> Kroger H, Ehrlich W, Klewer M, Gratz R, Dietrich A, Miesel R.
- </p>
- <p>
- Ann Clin Lab Sci 1977 Jan-Feb;7(1):68-72. <strong>Effects of drugs on platelet function.</strong> Morse EE.
- </p>
- <p>
- Thromb Haemost 1982 Apr 30;47(2):90-5. <strong>Effect of cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibitors on ADP-induced
- shape change, cAMP and nucleoside diphosphokinase activity of rabbit platelets.
- </strong>
-
- Lam SC, Guccione MA, Packham MA, Mustard JF.
- </p>
- <p>
- Carcinogenesis 1998 Aug;19(8):1369-75.<strong>
- The coffee-specific diterpenes cafestol and kahweol protect against aflatoxin B1-induced genotoxicity
- through a dual mechanism.</strong> Cavin C, Holzhauser D, Constable A, Huggett AC, Schilter B.
- </p>
- <p>
- Am J Epidemiol 1994 Apr 1;139(7):723-7.<strong>
- Coffee and serum gamma-glutamyltransferase: a study of self-defense officials in Japan.</strong>
- Kono S, Shinchi K, Imanishi K, Todoroki I, Hatsuse K.
- </p>
- <p>
- Carcinogenesis 1996 Nov;17(11):2377-84<strong>
- Placental glutathione S-transferase (GST-P) induction as a potential mechanism for the anti-carcinogenic
- effect of the coffee-specific components cafestol and kahweol</strong>. Schilter B, Perrin I, Cavin C,
- Huggett AC
- </p>
-
- <p>
- J Nutr 1999 Jul;129(7):1361-7.<strong>
- Teas and other beverages suppress D-galactosamine-induced liver injury in rats.</strong> Sugiyama K, He
- P, Wada S, Saeki S
- </p>
- <p>
- Nutr Cancer 1999;33(2):146-53.<strong>
- Effects of oral administration of tea,</strong>
- <strong>decaffeinated tea, and caffeine on the formation and growth of tumors in high-risk SKH-1 mice
- previously treated</strong> with ultraviolet B light. Lou YR, Lu YP, Xie JG, Huang MT, Conney AH.
- </p>
- <p>
- Ind Health 2000 Jan;38(1):99-102. <strong>Effects of coffee consumption against the development of liver
- dysfunction: a 4-year follow-up study of middle-aged Japanese male office workers.
- </strong>Nakanishi N, Nakamura K, Suzuki K, Tatara K.
- </p>
-
- <p>
- Ind Health 2000 Jan;38(1):99-102. <strong>Effects of coffee consumption against the development of liver
- dysfunction: a 4-year follow-up study of middle-aged Japanese male office workers.
- </strong>Nakanishi N, Nakamura K, Suzuki K, Tatara K. .
- </p>
- <p>
- Biochim Biophys Acta 1992 Dec 15; 1175(1):114-22. <strong>Caffeine promotes survival of cultured sympathetic
- neurons deprived of nerve growth factor through a cAMP-dependent mechanism.</strong> Tanaka S, Koike T.
- </p>
- <p>
- Int J Epidemiol 1998 Jun;27(3):438-43. <strong>Coffee consumption and decreased serum
- gamma-glutamyltransferase and aminotransferase activities among male alcohol drinkers.</strong> Tanaka
- K, Tokunaga S, Kono S, Tokudome S, Akamatsu T, Moriyama T, Zakouji H. <strong>
- ". . . recent epidemiological studies have suggested unexpected, possibly beneficial effects of coffee
- against the occurrence of alcoholic liver cirrhosis</strong> and upon serum liver enzyme levels."
- "Increased coffee consumption was strongly and independently associated with decreased GGT activity among
- males (P trend < 0.0001); the inverse association between coffee and serum GGT was more evident among
- heavier alcohol consumers (P < 0.0001), and was absent among non-alcohol drinkers." "Similar inverse
- associations with coffee and interactions between coffee and alcohol intake were observed for serum
- aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase. Intake of green tea, another popular source of
- caffeine in Japan, did not materially influence the liver enzyme levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest
- that coffee may inhibit the induction of GGT in the liver by alcohol consumption, and may possibly protect
- against liver cell damage due to alcohol."
- </p>
- <p>
- Am J Hosp Pharm 1989 Oct;46(10):2059-67. <strong>Abuse of drugs used to enhance athletic performance.
- </strong>Wagner JC.
- </p>
- <p>
- © Ray Peat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.RayPeat.com
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