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You most likely love this drink, but opinions vary on whether it\u2019s a health miracle or destroyer.<\/p>\nYou most likely love this drink, but opinions vary on whether it\u2019s a health miracle or destroyer.<\/p>\n
A new study in the journal Neurology<\/em> puts it firmly in the miracle class because it may prevent, even drastically improve, Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n Because previous studies suggest that coffee has a preventative effect on Parkinson’s, the researchers wanted to test this hypothesis with a large sample from various countries.<\/p>\n To do this, they mined information from the EPIC4PD study, a population-wide trial performed across six European countries. Their sample included 184,024 people free of Parkinson’s who were observed for an average period of 13 years.<\/p>\n They used medical records to check who developed Parkinson’s later, and the participants reported their own coffee consumption.<\/p>\n This is what the study found:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 2.\tAcross all coffee drinkers, the risk of developing Parkinson\u2019s was reduced by 5\u201363%, depending on the country.\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n However, the scientists didn\u2019t just ask people how much coffee they drank, since that would have made their study vulnerable to the potentially inaccurate memories of their participants.<\/p>\n They also examined blood samples from 702 people, half of them with Parkinson’s and the other half healthy.<\/p>\n They measured levels of caffeine and its primary breakdown products – paraxanthine and theophylline.<\/p>\n This smaller study confirmed their earlier results:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 2.\tParaxanthine and theophylline showed similar protective effects, with risk reductions of 18% and 22%, respectively.\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n Why does coffee help?<\/p>\n At this stage, researchers aren’t quite sure, but previous studies have provided some clues.<\/p>\n Parkinson\u2019s disease is marked by a loss of nerve cells in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra, leading to a drop in dopamine levels. Dopamine is crucial for controlling movement.<\/p>\n Caffeine helps to keep dopamine flowing in the brain, which might explain the protective effects of coffee.<\/p>\n\n
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