High blood caffeine levels may reduce body weight and type 2 diabetes risk | Hacker News Reader

High blood caffeine levels may reduce body weight and type 2 diabetes risk

imperial.ac.uk

52 pointsvoisin57 comments

High cocaine levels might also reduce body weight and type 2 diabetes, just saying.

That could also be true, but the thing is, where I live, I can't just go to the supermarket and buy a bag of cocaine for 10 Euros.

yeah, that only happens by accident

I guess you don't live in Colombia

Is 500g bag of cocaine in Colombia only 10 Euros?

In Bolivia, maybe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca_in_Bolivia

You cannot go to the supermarket in Colombia and buy cocaine either.

They had some really good prices on US brand toothpaste the last time I was there though

>You cannot go to the supermarket in Colombia and buy cocaine either.

Hence the joke

If you're lucky enough, you can buy coffee and cocaine for 10 Euros:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61343037

Very interesting to find the Nestle conglomerate "accidentally" being caught in the middle of a major drug smuggling operation. How could this have happened to such an innocent corporation[1]? /s

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoKLovtnbGY

Keith Richards is 79 and still touring. Still smokes. And is more handsome than ever.

It also increases anxiety/stress which makes any benefit a moot point.

Caffeine also takes a while to leave your system and affects your sleep, leading to long term cognitive decline.

Caffeine knocks me out. It makes me tired, always did,

There's an non-regular effect on caffeine to people with ADHD/ADD. Could be related to that.

I believe so; speed knocks me out too. This condition was not there (recognised) when I was young and now I like it.

> leading to long term cognitive decline.

Source?

Michael Pollan on the radio. I believe he discusses it in This is Your Mind on Plants.

Who? On the radio?

Someone who is currently a professor at both Harvard and Berkeley gave an interview on NPR about recreational drugs, an area which they specialize in. Caffeine was brought up as drug that people generally consider acceptable but how it has side effects worse than some drugs which are illegal. One of them being that the half life for caffeine prevents you from getting a good night's sleep, which, if done over a lifetime, will contribute to cognitive decline.

reduced body weight and risk of diabetes may well be worth some moderate side effects. Not to mention tolerance. I basically drink coffee and black tea like water and sleep like a baby

Red bull never gives me the jitters so I’m going to experiment with taking taurine and drinking a couple of strong cups of coffee to see if it is helpful to my usual extremely stressed out response.

From my surroundings, those who drink coffee normally have gray hair.

Due to coffee or statistically?

I doubt that's caused by coffee. Hair graying is mostly genetics. Coffee does stain your teeth though.

Which is just cosmetic. You can then cosmetically whiten them back again if you want.

We have the same thing. We’re all just old though.

Hair graying may be caused by melanocyte stem cells (MSC) depletion by genotoxic stress in the hair bulge. Hair graying may also be sometimes caused by dysfunction of the melanocytes by oxidative stress in the hair bulb. In addition, hair graying may be attributable to MSC depletion by active hair growth. Graying is associated with age-related defects in MSC maintenance. Irreversible DNA damage caused by genotoxic stressors such as ionizing radiation interrupts MSC comeback in mice.

Hair graying is associated with various autoimmune disorders including vitiligo and several rare premature aging syndromes including the Hutchinson Gilford and Werner syndrome. Hair graying may also reflect nutritional deficiencies (especially of vitamins) and the use of drugs such as chloroquine.

We do not know exactly the cause of hair graying in humans.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6029974/

This sounds like a ChatGPT answer!

I’m not sure it does. I am almost completely stress free in my entire life. I drink a fair bit of coffee and red bull (both without sugar) and never have any sleep, stress or anxiety problems.

The important thing with stressors is to identify them, write them down and deal with them. By dealing with them you have to ask if you really give a crap about them or not and the answer is usually no. If it is something you give a crap about then it’s usually pretty easy to sort out by coming up with some ideas and trying them out.

You can indeed live a stress free caffeinated life.

I am currently watching other people getting stressed over something I don’t give a crap about whilst drinking my morning brew.

> am currently watching other people getting stressed over something I don’t give a crap about whilst drinking my morning brew.

That's the spirit

Not going to solve any problems by getting stressed at them. Have to approach them with a level head and detachment or you end up with emotional outcomes.

Good for you, but probably difficult to extrapolate your n=1 anecdote to the entire population…

While it is good that you feel safe from stress and are able to manage the stressors you encounter, it's important to remember that not everyone experiences stress in the same way. Some people face external stressors that are beyond their control, such as financial difficulties, health issues, difficult relationships or even the impact of larger systemic issues.

Stressors can also have a compounding effect, as seen in the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory scale.

The scale assigns a numerical value to different life events based on how stressful they are considered to be. The idea is that when a person experiences a series of stressful events, the effects can compound and lead to greater levels of stress and negative health outcomes.

Caffeine can have different effects on different people. While it can help you feel more alert and focused, it can also increase anxiety and insomnia in others. Heightened anxiety resulting from caffeine intake can occur regardless of whether stressors exist in one's life.

I find that adding L-Theanine to my morning's coffee offset a lof of its negative effects. This is a popular ingredient in some "mind booster" products but you can do your own version at home easily by just buying supplement capsules.

So there is a correlation between two markers for genetic variants in the biochemical processing of caffeine in the human body on the one hand and body weight and risk of type 2 diabetes on the other, but not with the blood caffeine levels or the coffee consumption?

On a related note, I have noticed a correlation between perceived high blood amphetamine levels and reduced body weight at a few local gas stations.

May. May not. We don't really know. Lets pretend we did some science.

Theory as to why this is: caffeine boosts serotonin and serotonin increases guy motility. The faster the food transits, the less you can absorb and you lose weight. Higher levels of serotonin also reduce sugar craving.

Most caffeine ingestion seems to be in the form of sugary coffee or energy drinks.

not coffee? I go through a pot of black every day.

coffee doesn't need to be sugary.

My anecdotal sampling of orders at a coffee shop says it is common.

When I buy fivebucks coffee, sure I get a sweet drink.

But 99% of my consumption is my own cold brew. No sugar, brewed very strong, and then with just enough milk to bring out the flavor.

what city is your fivebucks in? It’s like sevenbucks in my city now

:D Yah, it's more like sevenbucks now here, too. That tells you how frequently I consume it...

Plus tips ;)

Coffee shops are not representative of everyone's routine coffee consumption.

By my anecdotal sampling a good portion of the population would never pay coffee shop prices for what they drink daily to function.

I rarely buy coffee at a shop and make at home. Even at the shop, I'm the person who gets drip coffee, black.

The fact that they have a big pot tells me there are others who get drip coffee.

Depends what country. In Australia I’ve not seen anyone ever put sugar in coffee. I’d say the vast majority order a flat white which is an espresso with foamed milk, no added sugar, and the rest get “an espresso” which is just a raw shot with nothing added.

Where are you getting that data from? Sure, a lot of people like some sugar in their coffee, but I’d definitely be hesitant to call it most people, off the cuff. I prefer just enough cream to change the color visibly, or black. No sugar. I’d say 80% of my friends also don’t want sugar.

My coffee is black like my soul

I just put a little half and half in my coffee. Or have unsweetened iced tea. Or diet soda (which I should really stop having).

It is certainly possible. However if you figure that each office worker drinks 2 cups a day at the office, and most don't get Star Bucks more than once per week, most coffee is still not some crazy sugar consumption.

How energy drinks etc fits in here, I don't know.

Would this also apply to SSRI medication?

Yes, SSRIs are actually commonly prescribed for IBS. Something like 90% of the serotonin in your body is in your gut. Psychedelics like Shrooms and LSD, which mimic serotonin, completely cut off appetite. The effects of SSRIs on weight are various. Serotonergic drugs are a huge class, it's hard to classify their effects, but primarily they are gastrointenstinal and psychological. All I know is that I've taken enough acid now where even caffeine makes me trip out a little. Still drinking green tea though. There's some anxiolytic compound in there, L-theanine, which mitigates the negative effects of caffeine use.

It's dopamine related, same as other stimulants.

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