Drinking coffee may cut stroke risk in women?
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A new study reported in the journal Stroke suggests drinking coffee may help reduce risk of stroke in women. But studies are inconsistent.
The study showed drinking more than one cup of coffee a day may cut the risk of stroke by 22 to 25 percent, compared with those who drank less.
For the study, Susanna Larsson, Ph.D. a veteran researcher of Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm in Sweden and colleagues followed 34,670 women aged 49 to 83 for an average 10.4 years and found the association.
The researchers found however more coffee did not result in more benefits.
Drinking 1 to 2 cups per day, 3-4 cups per day or five or more cups per day was associated with similarly reduced risk of stroke, compared with those who drank no more than one cup per day, according to the researchers.
The associations remained unchanged after adjustment for smoking status, body mass index, diabetes status and duration, high blood pressure or alcohol consumption, meaning, the researchers said, that the effect of the coffee was independent of these risk cardiovascular factors.
During the follow-up, the researchers identified 1,680 cases of stroke, 1,310 cerebral infarction or ischemic stroke caused by vascular blockage, 154 intracerebral hemorrhages caused by bleeding inside the brain, 79 subarachnoid hemorrhages caused by the bleeding on the surface of the brain and 137 cases with unknown causes.
Coffee consumption was correlated with significantly reduced risk of total stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and particularly cerebral infarction, Larsson said.
Although all types of coffee were counted in the study, regular coffee is most commonly used in the Swedish population.
The researchers speculated that coffee may neutralize inflammation, reduce oxidation and improve insulin sensitivity. Coffee contains thermally-generated antioxidants.
It should be noted that this is an observational study, which has not proved that the reduction in the risk of stroke observed in coffee drinkers was due to coffee consumption. More research is needed.
Previous studies are inconsistent.
One study published in the Nov 2, 2010 issue of Neurology suggests that drinking coffee may boost risk of ischemic stroke onset particularly among those who were infrequent drinkers.
E. Mostofsky and colleagues from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, USA studied data obtained through interviews from 209 women and 181 women, which were conducted within three days of acute ischemic stroke between Jan 2001 and Nov 2006.
Of all 390 subjects, 78 percent drank coffee in the prior year, 59 percent within 24 hours of stroke and about 9 percent within one hour of stroke onset.
Strokes were twice as likely to occur within one hours of drinking coffee.
Caffeinated tea was not found to have an effect on the risk of stroke onset.
The association between drinking coffee and increased risk of stroke within one hour of drinking coffee was only found significant among those who drank coffee infrequently.
David Liu
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