2-3 cups of coffee a day may reduce kidney injury risk by 23%

• Researchers have investigated the effects of coffee intake on acute kidney injury risk.

• They found that drinking any amount of coffee reduces the risk of acute kidney injury but that 2-3 cups per day is most beneficial.

• They say that further research is needed to understand why this link may exist. Coffeecontains many beneficial compounds for health, including caffeine, diterpenes, and chlorogenic acid. Studies show that habitual coffee consumption is linked to the prevention of chronic and degenerative conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease.

Caffeine, the most commonly studied compound in coffee, exerts positive effects on kidney function, and daily coffee consumption is linked to a lower risk of chronic kidney disease.

Although other compounds in coffee are less studied, compounds such as chlorogenic acid and trigonelline are known to reduce generalized inflammation and oxidative stress.

Knowing more about how coffee consumption affects the incidence of other kidney-related conditions could help policymakers take steps to reduce people’s risk of developing progressive kidney disease.

Recently, researchers investigated the effects of coffee consumption on acute kidney injury (AKI), when the kidneys lose all or part of their function suddenly.

AKI represents a public health problem with around 0.25% of the general population experiencing AKI, which rises to 18% among individuals who are hospitalized annually.

From their analysis, the researchers found that higher coffee intake is linked to a lower risk of incident AKI.

The study was published in Kidney International Reports.

The most beneficial amount of coffee

For the study, the researchers used data from 14,207 adults ages 45 – 64 from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The researchers assessed the participants’ coffee consumption during their first visit via a food frequency questionnaire. In total, they found:

• 27% never drank coffee

• 14% drank less than a cup of coffee per day

• 19% drank 1 cup per day

• 23% drank 2-3 cups per day

• 17% drank more than 3 cups per day

To define acute kidney injury, the researchers looked at rates of hospitalization, including an International Classification of Diseases code indicating AKI throughout a median period of 24 years follow-up. They noted 1,694 cases of incident AKI during the follow-up period.

After adjusting for demographic factors, they found that individuals who consumed any amount of coffee had an 11% lower risk of developing AKI compared to individuals who did not consume the beverage.

The researchers further noted a dose-dependent relationship between AKI and coffee intake, with those consuming 2-3 cups of coffee per day experiencing the most substantial risk reduction.

Coffee’s protective effects

When asked what might explain the potential protective effects of coffee for acute kidney injury, Dr. Matthew Weir, professor of medicine and the head of the Division of Nephrology at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today that the study did not offer clues.

“[The researchers] provide theories, but there are numerous problems with retrospective data review, which may confound the observations and limit the validity. At least there was no evidence of harm,” said Dr. Weir.

In the study, the researchers noted their findings might be the result of bioactive compounds in coffee that improve perfusion and oxygen utilization in the kidneys.

Dr. Kalie L. Tommerdahl, assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of Colorado, and Dr. Chirag Rohit Parikh, director of the Division of Nephrology at Johns Hopkins University, who were both authors of the study, told MNT that they conducted a companion study to further understand the potential mechanisms.

“We studied ten youths aged 12 to 21 years old with type 1 diabetes and aimed to assess the effects of a confirmed 7-day course of a single daily Starbucks cold brew (325 ml, 175mg caffeine) on [various measures of renal function],” they said.

“The study included a small sample size. While it confirmed that we can effectively assess these intrarenal measures in adolescents with type 1 diabetes, we did not find any differences in [renal function] following a short course of daily coffee consumption,” they added.

The researchers concluded that they needed to further evaluate the physiological mechanisms underlying the potentially protective effects of coffee consumption in larger studies of a longer duration.

What about other caffeinated beverages?

Dr. Weir noted that the study had many limitations that the authors readily accounted for in their paper.

When asked about these limitations, Dr. Tommerdahl and Dr. Parikh said the main limitation was that they used “a food frequency questionnaire that relied on participant recollection rather than direct measurement to assess average daily coffee consumption.”

“Coffee additives such as milk, half-and-half, creamer, sugar, or sweeteners could also influence outcomes and warrant further investigation,” they added.

They pointed out that other beverages may produce similar effects.

“In addition, consumption of other caffeinated beverages such as tea or soda should also be considered a possible confounding factor. Further limitations include reliance on the inclusion of AKI on the problem list during inpatient hospitalization and the potential for confounding effects from differences in etiologies for participant hospitalization,” they said.

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Is coffee bad for the heart or not?

Studies on coffee consumption variously claim that coffee harms the arteries, that it protects the heart, or that it has no effect on cardiovascular health. New research on thousands of participants weighs in again on the link between this favorite beverage and heart health.

 

Does coffee harm, protect, or have no effect on heart health and the vascular system?

For years, scientists have been trying to answer these questions, since coffee is such a favorite beverage around the world.

While some studies warn that drinking coffee can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular events, others suggest that it can help maintain heart health and blood vessel function.Some researc has suggested that regularly drinking a lot of coffee contributes to aortic stiffness — this is when the aorta, which is the largest blood vessel in the human body, becomes less and less flexible. Aortic stiffness can contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease.

At the same time, other evidence has indicated that drinking more than three cups of coffee a day can protect against atherosclerosis, a condition in which plaque builds up inside the arteries, preventing blood from flowing normally.

Now, a new study conducted by researchers from the Queen Mary University of London in the United Kingdom has found that even people who drink a significant amount of coffee each day do not experience arterial stiffness, meaning that coffee does not increase their risk of cardiovascular problems in this way.

Lead author Prof. Steffen Petersen and colleagues presented the study’s findings yesterday at the annual British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Conference in Manchester, U.K.

The British Heart Foundation, a registered charity based in the U.K. that supports research about heart and circulatory conditions, funded the study.

Same results across all groups

In the new study, the research team analyzed the data of 8,412 participants recruited via the U.K. Biobank Imaging Study. At the BCS Conference, the team explained that the participants agreed to undergo cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and other specialist assessments to allow the investigators to determine the state of their cardiovascular function.

The participants also self-reported how much coffee they typically drank on a day-to-day basis. Following these reports, the investigators then categorized the participants into three groups, according to their coffee consumption habits:

• people who drank one or fewer cups of coffee a day

• those who drank between one and three cups of coffee per day

• those who drank more than three cups of coffee per day

In their final analysis, Prof. Petersen and team excluded individuals who drank more than 25 cups of coffee per day, as well as those who had cardiovascular disease at baseline.

When comparing measurements of arterial stiffness between the three groups, the researchers found no differences between moderate and heavy coffee drinkers (those who drank between one and three or more than three cups of coffee per day, respectively) and those who had one cup off coffee or less per day.

These results, the investigators say, suggest that even drinking significant amounts of coffee is unlikely to have an ill effect on arterial health, so it may not negatively influence heart health and vascular function.

“Despite the huge popularity of coffee worldwide, different reports could put people off from enjoying it. Whilst we can’t prove a causal link in this study, our research indicates coffee isn’t as bad for the arteries as previous studies would suggest,” explains study coauthor Kenneth Fung.

These findings remained in place after the investigators adjusted for possible factors contributing to arterial stiffness, including age, biological sex, ethnicity, smoking status, alcohol consumption, height, weight, eating habits, hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, and diabetes.

What should and what shouldn’t we believe?

The researchers also noted that moderate and heavy coffee drinkers were more likely to be male, habitual smokers, and frequent drinkers of alcohol.

“Although our study included individuals who drink up to 25 cups a day, the average intake amongst the highest coffee consumption group was five cups a day. We would like to study these people more closely in our future work so that we can help to advise safe limits,” Fung also specifies.

Prof. Metin Avkiran, who is Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, and who was not involved in the current research, explains that such studies about the relationship between coffee consumption habits and heart health can help individuals make better-informed decisions.

“Understanding the impact that coffee has on our heart and circulatory system is something that researchers and the media have had brewing for some time. There are several conflicting studies saying different things about coffee, and it can be difficult to filter what we should believe and what we shouldn’t.”

“This research will hopefully put some of the media reports in perspective, as it rules out one of the potential detrimental effects of coffee on our arteries,” Prof. Avkiran says.

Written by Annie Lennon on June 15, 2022 — Fact checked by Alexandra Sanfins, Ph.D.

 

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