The study was conducted for a period of 11 years. It looked at diabetes risk among nearly 29,000 women in Iowa who were followed from 1986 to 1997. Epidemiologist Mark Pereira and his colleagues asked the participants to fill out questionnaires that mainly enquired about their eating and drinking habits. The researchers then tried to look for an association between coffee consumption and diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is found to affect about 18 million Americans.
The patient's pancreatic cells no longer break down sugar properly which results in the disease. This further result in the damage to various organs and causes kidney failure, blindness and circulation problems that eventually lead to amputations. Dr. Robert Rizza, president of the American Diabetes Association and a professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Minnesota said that this benefit is exclusively for those who drink decaffeinated coffee. The study found that decaffeinated coffee consumption resulted in a 22 % reduction in diabetes risk. Another study was also cited by him which said that coffee may help prevent cirrhosis.
The study results were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Pereira, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Minnesota, said that coffee plays a vital role in the regulation of blood sugar. Pereira said that coffee is rich in antioxidants and hence protect the pancreatic cells which produce insulin. Though other studies show a link between coffee drinking and a reduced risk of diabetes it is necessary to do further research to confirm the hypothesis.
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