"Love, tobacco, coffee and, in general, all poisons that are not strong enough to kill us in an instant, become a daily necessity".
Enrique Jardiel Poncela
What substance or medicine is able to prevent the risk of Parkinson's disease between 20 and 70% or can delay the disease for up to 8 years?
Incredible as it may seem, coffee is responsible. Drinking about two cups a day on a regular basis has these extraordinary properties that no medicine has achieved to this day. And these are not statements made lightly, but based on numerous studies published in the most prestigious medical journals.
This is a statistical fact, valid for the vast majority of the population. Almost everyone cannot sleep well if they drink coffee too close to bedtime. But we know that a part of the population is not affected by coffee sleep. Coffee is not recommended for all patients already diagnosed and treated. It can exacerbate tremors, increase nervousness, etc. The specialist should be consulted. There are dozens, hundreds of foods and beneficial nutrients in addition to coffee.
1. From initial disbelief to a slow process of acceptance.
A cup of coffee to prevent Parkinson's? Twenty-five years ago, when my father was diagnosed with the disease (1994), we wouldn't have taken it seriously.
A decade later, when we read this data in "Tratamientos heterodoxos en la enfermedad de Parkinson" (2004), by neurologist Dr. Rafael González Maldonado, we began to take it seriously, but we still didn't understand anything at all. In fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that I began to understand some of the things coffee teaches us about Parkinson's disease.
Table 1. The information from "Heterodox Treatments..." that impacted us.
1. Coffee prevents the disease by 20-70% (Ascherio 2001; Sobel 2000; Ross, 2000, 2001).
2. If you suffer from it, even when drinking coffee, the first symptoms are delayed up to 8 years (from 64 to 72). (Benedetti 2000).
3. Among those who never drink coffee, there is 5 times more illness (Ross 2000, Hu 2007), etc.
What is certain is that we were not prepared to assimilate this information so revolutionary for us. My father didn't do it in his 18 years of Parkinson's diagnosed. And in my case, until I began to write a book about our experiences in 2015 and to revise many times the lists of studies and to reread articles and books, I did not realize its immense value.
For a long time I searched the Internet, for my father, for some panacea or some sort of "magic" formula from some exotic place (Amazon, Tibet or something like that).
Now what surprises me the most is that I had everything at my fingertips, but I couldn't see it: in the supermarket, in the pharmacy, in the herbal shop...
I needed almost 20 years!
2. Why is coffee so effective?
The claim that coffee "prevents" (or reduces the risk) Parkinson's is a statistical, epidemiological truth. Of course there are people who drink coffee regularly with Parkinson's, but we have already seen that coffee also helps them, delaying the appearance of the first symptoms for many years. Eight years is not a few.
Once we accepted that it was like that (by the prestigious neurologists who affirmed it in studies and books), the first question we asked ourselves was: Why? How can it be that coffee has these properties?
The subsequent search led us to know that the responsible substances could be:
a) Caffeine. Almost all studies attribute to this alkaloid the preventive and medicinal properties related to Parkinson's disease. In fact, decaffeinated coffee does not protect against Parkinson's disease (Ascherio, 2001).
Caffeine acts in a variety of ways:
- It protects the dopaminergic pathways and stimulates the production of dopamine. When taken together with levodopa, coffee is able to potentiate and prolong its effects (Ferre 2001, Kartzinel 1976).
- antagonist of adenosine, a substance that reduces the release of dopamine. Caffeine resembles adenosine and competes with it, acting on adenosine receptors, but without activating them.
- peripheral vasodilator (that's why a cup of coffee is a good emergency solution to an asthmatic attack by dilating the capillaries of the bronchi). But it acts as a vasoconstrictor of the blood vessels of the brain and of the blood brain barrier that protects it, closing even more the "filter" before the harmful substances that are in the blood. It does not seem nonsensical to think that over several decades, it could have a positive impact on protecting neurons in the areas of the brain where dopamine is produced.
Table 2. Caffeine and niacin content (approximate).
Cup of 150/180 ml. Caffeine (mg.) Vitamin B3 (mg.)
Normal coffee 100-150 2-3 (15 % RDA)
Decaffeinated coffee 2 1 (5 % RDA)
b) Vitamin B3 or Niacin. The amount of niacin, nicotinic acid or nicotidamide contained in coffee differs according to the variety and the process to which it has been subjected (roasting or torrrefaction greatly increases the amount of vitamin B3 in coffee, the decaffeinated process removes about 40-50% of the vitamin). It seems that the decaffeinated process not only deprives this drink of almost all the caffeine but also a good amount of niacin. The figures are so different according to the sources consulted that we have resorted to the experts in the studies on coffee. Italian coffees have 4 times more nicotinic acid than American coffees.
About 3 cups of coffee a day provide 30-40% of daily vitamin B3 needs. Decaffeinated coffee contains about half as much nicotinic acid as whole coffee, because chlorinated solvents remove enough trigoneline (in the roasting process of coffee, trigoneline - methylnicotinic acid - is converted to nicotinic acid). Other authors place this amount between 30 and 53 % less (Tepley 1957, Adrian 1991).
Bearing in mind that the majority of the population is deficient in niacin and that for our body to synthesize 1 mg of this vitamin needs 60 mg of tryptophan and a significant amount of vitamins and minerals (our body is very ineffective in this process), we can assume the importance of the regular intake of niacin provided by coffee to regular drinkers of two or three cups daily throughout life.
According to the sources consulted, the varieties of coffee with more vitamin B3 prevent pellagra in areas of America whose diet is still based on corn (which barely contains niacin and this is little available, unless the corn is treated before (cooking corn with water and lime, as is done in Mexico).
So important is the amount and biological efficiency of coffee niacin that pellagra (a vitamin B3 deficiency disease) has even been successfully treated in Côte d'Ivoire with four daily cups of the C. arabica variety, rich in niacin and poor in caffeine), providing patients with 11 mg of niacin and only 0.4 mg of caffeine each day. Within two months almost all the symptoms of pellagra had disappeared (Gounelle de Pontanel 1969, Adrian 1991).
c) Other components. Among the more than 1200 components of coffee, is a moderate source of some minerals such as potassium, magnesium and manganese. And it contains powerful antioxidants such as chlorogenic acid and ferulic acid (with anti-inflammatory properties).
3. This was confirmed by the numerous studies available.
"One cappuccino a day... caffeine can keep Parkinson's disease at bay", was the provocative title of an article published by RK Sobel in 2000.
Over the years, we were able to ask some basic, uncomplicated questions after looking together again and again at the studies we managed to find.
And we continued to look for information. We started to evaluate the studies.
Table 3. Studies on coffee (caffeine) and Parkinson's.
- Coffee is neuroprotective (Abreu 2011, Butt 2011).
- Coffee reduces the risk of Parkinson's by 20-70% (Ross 2000, 2001, Ascherio 2001, Sobel 2000).
- Among coffee drinkers there is also Parkinson's, but it delays the first symptoms, which appear 8 years later (from 64 to 72). (Benedetti 2000).
- Among those who do not drink coffee there is never 5 times more Parkinson's (Ross 2000, Hu 2007).
- Taken with levodopa or with dopamine agonists, coffee enhances its action and prolongs the effect (Ferre 2001, Kartzinel 1976).
- Caffeine does not increase tremor at recommended doses, no more than two or three cups daily (Koller 1987).
Table 4. Studies on vitamin B3 and Parkinson's disease.
- A diet rich in vitamin B3 reduces the risk of developing the disease (Fall 1992).
- A diet low in vitamin B3 increases the risk of Parkinson's (Hellenbrand 1996).
- Vitamin B3 produces an improvement in the symptoms of patients (Kuhn 1993).
- Taken together with levodopa, it raises dopamine levels and prolongs its effects over time (Black 1986).
4. What coffee teaches us.
I am just as interested or more interested in what this drink has to teach us than those almost miraculous properties of coffee.
The first thing it did was to open our minds, prepare us to see Parkinson's from other points of view, teach us to ask the basic questions again.
How can something as "simple" as drinking a couple of cups of coffee a day have such powerful effects on a disease as "complex" as Parkinson's?
Coffee has more than 1200 substances. Surely caffeine and niacin are responsible for their "antiparkinsonian" properties, but some more could collaborate, such as ferulic acid, or many of them together (a kind of natural "protocol"). Vitamin B3 in coffee is biologically very effective.
What is certain is that coffee surpasses in some aspects to the existing medication at present (2021), especially in the preventive capacity, and could be an excellent complement to levodopa, together with the appropriate doses of vitamin C, B3, B9, silymarin, to reduce its adverse effects. But I'm afraid there are still a few years to go before decisive steps are taken in this direction.
CAVEAT: Always consult your doctor or pharmacist, because coffee can be harmful to certain diseases or medicines. Although we seek information to speed up change, their knowledge and experience are irreplaceable. We will defeat Parkinson's with boldness and courage, but also with respect and pragmatism.
List of studies mentioned in the article:
Abreu (2011). Chronic coffee and caffeine ingestion effects on the cognitive function and antioxidant system of rat brains. Pharmacol Biochem Behav.
Adrian (1991). Synthesis and availability of niacin in roasted coffee. Adv Exp Med Biol.
Ascherio (2001). Prospective study of caffeine consumption and risk of Parkinson's disease in men and women. Ann Neurol.
Benedetti (2000). Smoking, alcohol, and coffee consumption preceding Parkinson's disease: a case-control study. Neurology.
Black (1986). Nicotinic acid or N-methyl nicotinamide prolongs elevated brain dopa and dopamine in L-dopa treatment. Biochem Med Metab Biol.
Butt (2011). Coffee and its consumption: benefits and risks. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr.
Fall (1999). Nutritional and occupational factors influencing the risk of Parkinson's disease: a case-control study in southeastern Sweden. Mov Disord.
Fuxe (2001). Adenosine receptors and Parkinson's disease. Relevance of antagonistic adenosine and dopamine receptor interactions in the striatum. Adv Neurol.
Gounelle de Pontanel (1969). Café et Santé: la place du café en diététique. Bull. Acad. Nat. Médecine.
Hellenbrand (1996). Diet and Parkinson's disease. II: A possible role for the past intake of specific nutrients. Results from a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire in a case-control study. Neurology.
Hu (2007). Coffee and tea consumption and the risk of Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord.
Kartzinel (1976). Studies with bromocriptine: III. Concomitant administration of caffeine to patients with idiopathic parkinsonism. Neurology
Koller (1987). Caffeine and tremor. Neurology.
Kuhn (1996). Parenteral application of NADH in Parkinson's disease: clinical improvement partially due to stimulation of endogenous levodopa biosynthesis. J Neural Transm.
Ross (2000). Association of coffee and caffeine intake with the risk of Parkinson disease. JAMA.
Ross (2001). Current evidence for neuroprotective of nicotine and caffeine against Parkinson´s disease. Drugs Aging.
Sobel (2000). A cappuccino a day ... caffeine may ward off Parkinson's disease. US News World Rep.
Tepley (1957). Influence of roasting intensity on the niacin content in coffee (En: Adrian (1991). Synthesis and Availability of niacin in roated coffee).
Tepley (1957). Nutritional evaluation of coffee including niacin bioassay. Coffee Brewing Institute.
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(original in Spanish 2015 / translation to English 2019 / updated in 2021).
Jesus Marquez Rivera. Project "Parkinsons here and now" (in Blogger and Facebook). jesusmarquezrivera@gmail.com
) Somehow, I have convinced him to start coffee again, and he has, but only half a cup if even that.
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