Drinking 4 or more daily cups of green tea plus 2 or more of coffee was associated with a 63% lower risk of death over a period of around 5 years, the findings show.

People with type 2 diabetes are more prone to circulatory diseases, dementia, cancer, and bone fractures. And despite an increasing number of effective drugs, lifestyle modifications, such as exercise and diet, remain a cornerstone of treatment.

Previously published research suggests that regularly drinking green tea and coffee may be beneficial for health because of the various bioactive compounds these beverages contain.

But few of these studies have been carried out in people with diabetes. The researchers, therefore, decided to explore the potential impact of green tea and coffee, separately and combined, on the risk of death among people with the condition.

They tracked the health of 4923 Japanese people (2790 men, 2133 women) with type 2 diabetes (average age 66) for an average of just over 5 years.

All of them had been enrolled in The Fukuoka Diabetes Registry, a multicentre prospective study looking at the effect of drug treatments and lifestyle on the lifespan of patients with type 2 diabetes.

They each filled in a 58-item food and drink questionnaire, which included questions on how much green tea and coffee they drank every day. And they provided background information on lifestyle factors, such as regular exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption and nightly hours of sleep.

Measurements of height, weight and blood pressure were also taken, as were blood and urine samples to check for potential underlying risk factors.

Some 607 of the participants didn't drink green tea; 1143 drank up to a cup a day; 1384 drank 2-3 cups, and 1784 drank 4 or more. Nearly 1000 (994) of the participants didn't drink coffee; 1306 drank up to 1 cup daily; 963 drank a cup every day; while 1660 drank 2 or more cups.

During the monitoring period, 309 people (218 men, 91 women) died. The main causes of death were cancer (114) and cardiovascular disease (76).

Compared with those who drank neither beverage, those who drank one or both had lower odds of dying from any cause, with the lowest odds associated with drinking higher quantities of both green tea and coffee.

Drinking up to 1 cup of green tea every day was associated with 15% lower odds of death; while drinking 2-3 cups was associated with 27% lower odds. Getting through 4 or more daily cups was associated with 40% lower odds.

Among coffee drinkers, up to 1 daily cup was associated with 12% lower odds; while 1 cup a day was associated with 19% lower odds. And 2 or more cups were associated with 41% lower odds.

The risk of death was even lower for those who drank both green tea and coffee every day: 51% lower for 2-3 cups of green tea plus 2 or more of coffee; 58% lower for 4 or more cups of green tea plus 1 cup of coffee every day; and 63% lower for a combination of 4 or more cups of green tea and 2 or more cups of coffee every day.

This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish the cause. And the researchers point to several caveats, including the reliance on subjective assessments of the quantities of green tea and coffee drunk.

Nor was any information gathered on other potentially influential factors, such as household income and educational attainment. And the green tea available in Japan may not be the same as that found elsewhere, they add.

The biology behind these observations isn't fully understood, explain the researchers. Green tea contains several antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds, including phenols and theanine, as well as caffeine.

Coffee also contains numerous bioactive components, including phenols. As well as its potentially harmful effects on the circulatory system, caffeine is thought to alter insulin production and sensitivity.

"This prospective cohort study demonstrated that greater consumption of green tea and coffee was significantly associated with reduced all-cause mortality: the effects may be additive," the researchers conclude.

Story Source:

Materials provided by BMJ. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201020190129.htm 

Journal Reference:

1. Yuji Komorita, Masanori Iwase, Hiroki Fujii, Toshiaki Ohkuma, Hitoshi Ide, Tamaki Jodai-Kitamura, Masahito Yoshinari, Yutaro Oku, Taiki Higashi, Udai Nakamura, Takanari Kitazono. Additive effects of green tea and coffee on all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: the Fukuoka Diabetes Registry. BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, 2020; 8 (1): e001252 DOI: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2020-001252

In their paper published Aug. 23 in Cancer Prevention Research, lead author and Ph.D. student Jianan Zhang, associate professor Guodong Zhang, and professor and department head Eric Decker showed that feeding frying oil to mice exaggerated colonic inflammation, enhanced tumor growth and worsened gut leakage, spreading bacteria or toxic bacterial products into the bloodstream.

"People with colonic inflammation or colon cancer should be aware of this research," says Jianan Zhang.

Guodong Zhang, whose food science lab focuses on the discovery of new cellular targets in the treatment of colon cancer and how to reduce the risks of IBD, stresses that "it's not our message that frying oil can cause cancer."

Rather, the new research suggests that eating fried foods may exacerbate and advance the conditions of the colon. "In the United States, many people have these diseases, but many of them may still eat fast food and fried food," says Guodong Zhang. "If somebody has IBD or colon cancer and they eat this kind of food, there is a chance it will make the diseases more aggressive."

For their experiments, the researchers used a real-world sample of canola oil, in which falafel had been cooked at 325 F in a standard commercial fryer at an eatery in Amherst, Massachusetts. "Canola oil is used widely in America for frying," Jianan Zhang says.

Decker, an expert in lipid chemistry performed the analysis of the oil, which undergoes an array of chemical reactions during the frying process. He characterized the fatty acid profiles, the level of free fatty acids and the status of oxidation.

A combination of the frying oil and fresh oil was added to the powder diet of one group of mice. The control group was fed the powder diet with only fresh oil mixed in. "We tried to mimic the human being's diet," Guodong Zhang says.

Supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the researchers looked at the effects of the diets on colonic inflammation, colon tumor growth and gut leakage, finding that the frying oil diet worsened all the conditions. "The tumors doubled in size from the control group to the study group," Guodong Zhang says.

To test their hypothesis that the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which occurs when the oil is heated, is instrumental in the inflammatory effects, the researchers isolated polar compounds from the frying oil and fed them to the mice. The results were "very similar" to those from the experiment in which the mice were fed frying oil, suggesting that the polar compounds mediated the inflammatory effects.

While more research is needed, the researchers hope a better understanding of the health impacts of frying oil will lead to dietary guidelines and public health policies.

"For individuals with or prone to inflammatory bowel disease," Guodong Zhang says, "it's probably a good idea to eat less fried food."

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190823094825.htm 

Journal Reference:

1. Jianan Zhang, Xijing Chen, Ran Yang, Qin Ma, Weipeng Qi, Katherine Z. Sanidad, Yeonhwa Park, Daeyoung Kim, Eric A. Decker, Guodong Zhang. Thermally processed oil exaggerates colonic inflammation and colitis-associated colon tumorigenesis in mice. Cancer Prevention Research, 2019; DOI: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-19-0226

Medical Sciences student Rhain Hopkins was lead author of the study of more than 12,000 UK patients aged over 40, which found that the cancer risk in males was 6.2 percent, compared to 2.7 per cent in those without microcytosis.

The research, funded by Cancer Research UK and NIHR and published in BJGP, found that in females, the risk of cancer was 2.7 percent in those with microcytosis, compared to 1.4 percent without.

Of more than 108,000 followed within the Clinical Practice Research Datalink records, 12,289 patients with microcytosis were followed up. Of those, 497 developed cancer within a year.

Microcytosis is related to iron deficiency and with genetic conditions which affect haemaglobn in the blood. Similarly, iron deficiency has been identified as a feature of some cancers, particularly colorectal. Microcytosis is easily identified in a routine blood test.

Rhian Hopkins was working with Exeter's cancer diagnosis team as part of her Professional Training Year, which gives Medical Sciences students practical experience of research. As lead author of the paper, she said: "Research targeted at diagnosing cancer earlier is so important in reducing the burden of this devastating disease. The identification of risk markers, such as microcytosis, that are relevant to a range of cancers, can have a real impact in primary care. Being part of this research has been a very rewarding experience and getting my first paper published is such a massive achievement."

Professor Willie Hamilton, at the University of Exeter Medical School, who oversaw the research, said: "Overall, the risk of cancer in patients with microcytosis was still low, however our research indicates a need to investigate cancer. In two patients with cancer out of three the possibility of cancer is fairly easy to identify. For the other third, symptoms are often vague, and don't clearly point to cancer. For these patients GPs have to use more subtle clues to recognise that cancer may be present. Small red cells have long been recognised with colon cancer, but this study shows that they are a much broader clue, alerting the doctor to the small possibility of one of several possible cancers."

Dr Elizabeth Shephard, who supervised Rhian, said: "Rhian was a dedicated, proactive and enthusiastic student and an absolute pleasure to work with. As part of her Professional Training Year (PTY), Rhian undertook this standalone project of investigating the role of microcytosis as a possible early marker of cancer. She taught herself to use Stata statistical analysis software, and with guidance learned how to build the database from which to run the analyses. She also analysed the data and wrote up the paper for publication, making a meaningful contribution to the potentially life-saving area of cancer diagnosis.

"The PTY placement is a fantastic opportunity for undergraduates to gain valuable research work experience -- and for academics to work with bright students. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the programme."

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Exeter. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200505164635.htm 

Journal Reference:

1. Rhian Hopkins, Sarah ER Bailey, William T Hamilton, Elizabeth A Shephard. Microcytosis as a risk marker of cancer in primary care: a cohort study using electronic patient records. British Journal of General Practice, 2020; bjgp20X709577 DOI: 10.3399/bjgp20X709577