Coffee and Parkinson's disease. The incre... - Cure Parkinson's

Cure Parkinson's

26,491 members27,905 posts

Coffee and Parkinson's disease. The incredible effects of this drink.

parkinsonshereandnow profile image

"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.

---

(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

Written by
parkinsonshereandnow profile image
parkinsonshereandnow
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
31 Replies
rescuema profile image
rescuema

Be sure to drink organic coffee and use paper coffee filters. Coffee (caffeine) also tends to leach calcium so be sure to eat adequate calcium through foods. Calcium (in addition to Mg, Zn, Cu, K, etc) deficiency can contribute to tremors and twitches.

academic.oup.com/eurjpc/art...

Despe profile image
Despe in reply torescuema

I remember my husband always with a cup of coffee throughout the day. Although his motor symptom (not symptomS) started at 70, basically his left pinkie finger was tremoring, he was diagnosed at 73. I strongly believe his high intake of daily coffee delayed his diagnosis.

He now hates coffee but he still loves a cup of cappuccino latte (I love coffee, too, and any kind of coffee will do for me. A cup of Greek coffee will put my energy in gear every morning. :) ) Somehow, I have convinced him to start coffee again, and he has, but only half a cup if even that.

rescuema profile image
rescuema in reply toDespe

A bit of milk does help counter the calcium loss. I prefer black coffee but sometimes add a tsp of milk for calcium (1 tsp = 6mg calcium) when fasting. However, more dairy intake as in a latte (high % milk) is associated with increased TMAO metabolite that may speed the PD progression so it might be best avoided on a regular basis although dependent on gut microbiota.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/328...

frontiersin.org/articles/10...

Despe profile image
Despe in reply torescuema

Thanks! We are aware that dairy are not recommended, and he was never a fan of dairy products (he uses coconut milk or almond milk for his keto breakfast). The latte he prepares at home is nothing like Starbucks :) . We use a demitasse cup with strong coffee and a little foam made from grass fed milk. Your tsp of milk is probably more than the foam in my cappuccino. :) :)

As usual, always helpful, always knowledgeable!

MarionP profile image
MarionP in reply torescuema

Drink tea. Tea is a fine and beneficial substitute for coffee. Use black and green in equal amounts distributed any way you like. Avoid tea grown in the U.S. same as you would avoid rice grown in the U.S.

Also cocoa.

rescuema profile image
rescuema in reply toMarionP

Marion, you'd laugh if you see my tea collection - I have them all and all organic. 😄My pantry is out of control filled with teas, but I do love my black coffee in the morning. I avoid rice grown in the southern Texas gulf coast region, but do get the organic ones from CA or S. Korea, and soak, sprout, and remove as much arsenic before cooking.

Despe profile image
Despe in reply torescuema

If they are organic, why arsenic?

rescuema profile image
rescuema in reply toDespe

The arsenic concentration is high in the soil so whether it's organic or not doesn't matter.

MarionP profile image
MarionP in reply torescuema

Anywhere that cotton or tobacco was grown, arsenic was used for insect control and boll weevil control, heavily, and it stays in the ground and concentrates there for generations until it comes up in leaves and gluetens and starches from things that are grown in it including rice and tea which now are grown in those very same lands. So even if it is organic inputs from then on you have tainted soil leaching arsenic back up into anything that grows there and leaching out of rice, especially brown rice, especially in the brand, and definitely even worse in tea, especially in water diffused more than the first 3-4 minutes.

So by the way if you happen to love your animals, the expensive foods that market "healthy" brown rice and rice will poison your loved ones.

PS Plantation lands is one way we managed to poison a whole race here, not counting industrial pollution in northern cities.

Despe profile image
Despe in reply torescuema

us.foursigmatic.com/product...

The combination is just fantastic! :)

rescuema profile image
rescuema in reply toDespe

I have a big tub of organic lion's mane powder but can't imagine it making my coffee taste better. I love to eat the LM mushroom after growing them fresh - they're delicious!

MarionP profile image
MarionP in reply torescuema

LM and Rieshi are quite heavy in "nerve growth factor," the discovery of which earned Levi-Montalcini and Cohen a Nobel in Medicine/Physiology in the 70s.

rescuema profile image
rescuema in reply toMarionP

For some reason, I don't react very well to Reishi - gives me splitting headaches and the powder tastes horrible. I love all edible mushrooms, especially the Maitake, Morel, LM, Chaterrelle, etc., but my absolute favorite is unattainable and rare Asia's Pine Mushroom (Matsutake).

MarionP profile image
MarionP in reply torescuema

Wow. I feel like a total pedestrian now.

But the LM is the one other that has that NGF, so enjoy it! Chock full of protein too as I understand it.

Look up the bit about the 1974 Nobel sometime. Just missed being able to be a student with her, after 1975 she spent all her time developing her new lab in Italy, but as an incoming freshman and a lousy student to boot I would have been about 5 years too immature and not good enough a student anyway. She's got an interesting history, right to the end. Levi-Montalcini

rescuema profile image
rescuema in reply toMarionP

lol, I have a passion for mushrooms and I go hunting for wild mushrooms during the season. Mushrooms are tricky, so at one point it drove me crazy trying to identify all that I found in nature but gave up that impossible gig and now stick to the ones I could identify for sure. I never found LM wild but you can buy the grow kits that provide pretty good yields, and they're VERY tasty though I never noticed any IQ enhancing effect myself. 🤓

Despe profile image
Despe

Thanks for your desire and commitment to help PwP! You are among our very valuable members of this forum, Rescuema, Albert, Art, Park_Bear, Silvestrov, Joe, and so many others who have selflessly contributed their personal/scientific background to make PwP's life better. They sure have helped me tremendously in my quest to help my husband.

parkinsonshereandnow profile image
parkinsonshereandnow in reply toDespe

This forum has the highest standard I have seen so far (on a par with some blogs and books) and I am learning a lot. I have homework for many months.

Rutger's University in NJ recently did a study on coffee.

park_bear profile image
park_bear

Also discussed at some length here:

healthunlocked.com/parkinso...

gregorio profile image
gregorio

I am interested to ow if there is a significant difference between drinking coffee natural and instant coffee

rescuema profile image
rescuema in reply togregorio

Probably a bigger difference is between organic vs conventional, but instant coffee contains a higher amount of acrylamide, a harmful chemical that has the potential to damage the nervous system and increase the risk of cancer if high levels are consumed.

healthline.com/nutrition/ac...

"conventional coffee is among the most heavily chemically treated foods in the world. It is steeped in synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides – a real mouthful with a bad taste."

blog.equalexchange.coop/org...

Be sure you're not drinking one of the below popular ones -

caffeineinformer.com/coffee...

MarionP profile image
MarionP in reply togregorio

Instant coffee, barf! Must have been different when I was younger, made a cup of Folgers the other day and it was total poop, so made some Maxwell House and it was twice as bad! Trash bin x 2

gginto profile image
gginto

What about teas - specifically Japanese green tea? I was reading it's very good against Parkinson's... as they have caffein as well.

Kt088 profile image
Kt088

Funny I was a two to four cup of coffee drinker a day my whole life and still....PD

Canddy profile image
Canddy in reply toKt088

me too

EnterTheDragon profile image
EnterTheDragon in reply toKt088

Same here. I still drink 2-4 cups of organic coffee daily. Diagnosed with PD at age 59. Coffee obviously didn’t prevent or reduce PD symptoms

Astra7 profile image
Astra7 in reply toKt088

Me too.I drink at least 3 cups of strong coffee every day. PD at 52.

Maybe without it I would have been 42!!

Sugarbear67 profile image
Sugarbear67

I've read articles on coffee along with the benefits of Nicotine prolonging the onset. I'm a heavy coffee drinker and also smoke a pipe. I can tell you after having a pipe my mind is far clearer and I can move better.

MarionP profile image
MarionP in reply toSugarbear67

Careful on the pipe, lip cancer, tongue cancer...see the post-surgical pictures and you'll quit tonight, and be thankful too, no regrets for a minute, it's like that guy in movie The Girl in the Spiders Web.

MarionP profile image
MarionP

Drink tea. Tea is a fine and beneficial substitute for coffee. Use black and green in equal amounts distributed any way you like. Avoid tea grown in the U.S. same as you would avoid rice grown in the U.S.

Also real cocoa powder is good, rather similar benefits

Despe profile image
Despe in reply toMarionP

Marion,

I add cocoa to the coffee I brew every day. Very tasty.

Not what you're looking for?

You may also like...

Can we prevent, slow or halt, improve symptoms and reduce the severity of Parkinson's?

"Some things from the past are gone but others open a gap to the future and they are the ones I...

Coffee and Parkinson's

Coffee beans It looks like a couple of ingredients in coffee may help protect against Parkinson's:...
park_bear profile image

2. Non-Parkinsonian lifestyle (lower risk of developing the disease).

(Excerpt from the book I am writing now. I hope you find it useful). Is Parkinson's disease a...

Shining a light on Protein Aggregation in Parkinson's Disease

Niacin, who knew?! Research shows that in the brain, niacin interacts with a highly-selective...

Is Parkinson's disease a lifestyle disease? 1. Parkinsonian lifestyle (higher risk).

(Excerpt from the book I am writing now. I hope you find it useful). Is Parkinson's disease a...