A study explains why caffeine has health benefits. Caffeine reduces inflammations that get worse with age, say the investigators of how immune cells are affected by caffeine. This finding suggests why coffee may prevent Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular illness, and dementia.
Caffeine blocks the effects of adenosine; blocking adenosine receptors present on brain cells is how caffeine wakes us up. But adenosine blocking could block pathways that produce inflammatory molecules, per article in Nature Medicine.
“Something that many people like to drink may be of a direct benefit,” said Mark Davis, a Stanford professor and PI of the study. His group did not prove that caffeine improves health, but they proposed several possible ways it could work. “We have shown a correlation between caffeine consumption and longer life. And we’ve shown in the laboratory tests, a very likely mechanism.”
