You may have heard of studies telling you that caffeinated coffee is good for you, and then other studies telling you that it's bad for you. Now a new study says either may be true depending on your genes.
Is drinking caffeinated coffee good for you, or bad for you? Researchers say that may depend on whether you have slow or fast version of the gene that breaks down caffeine in your body. Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy says, "Of all the studies that have been conducted to date that looked at the effects of either coffee or caffeine on heart disease, none of them have taken into account genetic differences in the ability to break down caffeine."
This study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, compared the genes, and coffee-drinking habits, of about two thousand people who'd had heart attacks, and about two thousand people who had not. They found that about half the people in the study had the slow version of the gene. The rest had the fast version.
Dr. El-Sohemy says, "We found in individuals who had the slow version of this gene, as little as two cups of coffee a day is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Now for those who had the fast version of the gene, there was no increased risk, even with four or more cups a day."
These effects were strongest among people under 50 years of age and so were the benefits. "Surprisingly, what we found was that in individuals under 50 years of age who were fast metabolizers, had the fast version of this gene, consumption of as little as one to three cups a day was associated with a lower risk of heart disease," explains Dr. El-Sohemy.
Researchers hope that one day tests like this will be available to the public because they can help in creating personalized diet plans.
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