Study coffee can protect the genome from damage

Enjoying coffee helps protect DNA

For a long time, coffee was considered to be harmful to health, but in recent studies there are increasing indications of possible health benefits of coffee consumption. For example, scientists at the University of Kaiserslautern have now found that regular coffee consumption protects the genetic material from harmful strand breaks. Coffee enjoyment can therefore protect the DNA from harmful environmental influences.

From previous studies it was already known that coffee consumption reduces the oxidative damage of peripheral white blood cells, the researchers of the TU Kaiserslautern report in the journal "European Journal of Nutrition". In their recent study, they now looked at "the effects of consuming a dark roasted coffee blend on the level of spontaneous DNA strand breaks" in white blood cells. The latter are associated with accelerated cell aging and increased cancer risk.

Three cups of coffee a day protect against DNA damage
In the context of their study, the scientists led by Elke Richling from the University of Kaiserslautern, using the sample of 84 healthy men, analyzed how the consumption of around three cups of coffee per day affects the number of DNA strand breaks. Over four weeks half of the subjects drank 750 milliliters of coffee a day, while the other half consumed 750 milliliters of water instead. The researchers observed the occurring strand breaks in the white blood cell DNA of both groups. "At the beginning of the study, both groups showed similar numbers of spontaneous DNA strand breaks," but after four weeks of intervention, spontaneous DNA strand breaks in the control group (water only) increased, while they were significantly reduced in the coffee group (27 percent less than) in the water group), write the scientists of the TU Kaiserslautern. There were no relevant differences in overall diet and mean body weight between the two groups.

Coffee consumption reduces the risk of cancer
The researchers led by Elke Richling and Tamara Bakuradze conclude that regular coffee consumption contributes to "DNA integrity" and facilitates the maintenance of genetic material. This could also explain why coffee has been proven to have a protective effect on certain cancers. At the beginning of the year, for example, US scientists reported in the journal "Journal of the National Cancer Institute" that regular coffee consumption contributes to a reduced risk of skin cancer. In addition, in other studies, a protective effect of the coffee against cardiovascular diseases such as, in particular, a stroke or myocardial infarction could be detected. Which ingredients of coffee are responsible for the protective effect against DNA strand breaks, according to the scientists so far unclear, but should be checked in the following studies. (Fp)

/ Span>

Picture: Bernd Kasper