{"id":3871,"date":"2022-03-15T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3871"},"modified":"2022-03-01T06:49:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T06:49:39","slug":"caffeine-can-help-reduce-your-bad-cholesterol-and-scientists-just-found-out-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/caffeine-can-help-reduce-your-bad-cholesterol-and-scientists-just-found-out-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Caffeine Can Help Reduce Your Bad Cholesterol\u2014And Scientists Just Found Out How"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While we wouldn\u2019t necessarily recommend going on a coffee-exclusive diet as the next health trend, there really does seem to be some benefit to drinking your favorite morning brew, as scientists from McMaster University<\/a> identified some key proteins that caffeine affects, which in turn aid the removal of bad cholesterol from the bloodstream through organs like the liver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particular study, published in the journal Nature Communications<\/em><\/a>, was spearheaded by senior author Richard Austin, who\u2019s a McMaster professor of medicine. Together with Austin was a team of researchers who chased how exactly does caffeine fight off cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Your next cup of coffee might actually pose more of a benefit to you than you think\u2014all thanks to new findings by a team of researchers from McMaster University. (Kenneally, 2015)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoffee and tea drinkers have another important health reason to rejoice \u2013 minus the sugar,\u201d said Austin. \u201cThese findings now provide the underlying mechanism by which caffeine and its derivatives can mitigate the levels of blood PCSK9 and thereby reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be precise, Austin and the team found a link between coffee consumption and the reduction of the level of the protein PCSK9 in the bloodstream; this protein, when low, increases the liver\u2019s ability to remove unwanted low-density lipoprotein <\/em>(LDL) cholesterol, improving the body\u2019s chances against cardiovascular diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the McMaster University press release<\/a>, caffeine is also part of a group of chemicals that can \u201cblock\u201d the activation of the SREBP2 protein, which in turn reduces PCSK9 levels in the bloodstream. The research team describes their find as a \u201cmolecular domino effect,\u201d which they say was also spotted back in 2020 when they identified a genetic variant of PCSK9 that led to its reduced release in the bloodstream, leading to the same lower-cholesterol effect. (This earlier study was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caffeine can also be found in some of your other favorite foods, like colas, energy drinks, and chocolates. (Kenion, 2017)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Said co-author and McMaster pathology and molecular medicine professor Guillaume Par\u00e9: \u201cThese findings have [wide-ranging] implications as they connect this widely consumed, biologically active compound to cholesterol metabolism at a molecular level. This discovery was completely unexpected and shows that ordinary food and drink have many more complex effects than we think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future studies by Austin and the team will involve exploring other health benefits of caffeine beyond its now-known cholesterol-lowering function, as well as exploring the novel field of nutraceutical <\/em>medicine for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n