Coffee Can Protect the Heart with the Help of Mitochondria

A study has successfully cracked into the magic powers of caffeine. Science has since long ago linked the consumption of caffeine-rich products with lower disease risks, talking of conditions like type II diabetes, gout, depression, gallstone disease, several cancer types like skin and liver cancer, heart diseases like stroke and so on.

However, the mechanism underlying these protective effects remained a puzzle for all this time until recently. Now, a team of researchers has discovered that consumption of coffee to a certain amount promotes the movement of a monitoring protein into mitochondria, thereby boosting their function. This, in consequence, shields our cardiovascular cells from damage.

How much of the caffeine is medicine?

Source: healthline

The experts from IUF-Leibniz Research Institute together with their friends from IUF-Leibniz University, Medical Faculty from Germany found that the special protective effect in caffeine was arrived at after a concentration equivalent of taking a minimum of four cups of the beverage. This suggested that the effect could be physiologically relevant.

The work also appears on journal PLOS Biology this week’s issues. In a different study, the researchers demonstrated that with a logically applicable intake, like a few cups a day, caffeine seemed to enhance the functional capacity and efficiency of endothelial cells. These cells make the inner lining of the blood vessels, so they are directly impacted by mitochondria’s activity (think of mitochondria as cells’ powerhouses when it comes to energy production).

The study at a glance

A protein by the name p27 was found present in mitochondria in the most prevalent cell types that make the heart. p27 plays the role of cell cycle inhibitor. Now, after the four cups were consumed (which translated to the relevant concentration,) the mitochondrial p27 induced a migration of endothelial cells. This came with qualities of preventing the death of heart muscle cells, and the production of cells with contractile fibers — which are relevant in heart muscle repair, after myocardial infarction.

In essence, the scientists established that a caffeine concentration of relatively four cups provoked the movement of p27 into mitochondria. And that’s ideally how the highly significant chain of events begun and was sustained.  In pre-diabetic, aged mice, and obese mice, caffeine was also recorded to be protective against heart damage.

What this means

Source: trbimg

Judith Haendeler lead authors together with Joachim Altschmied said, “Our findings point to new reasons why folks might want to have the beverage. “That is, besides being a common memory stimulant and a recipe for lowering a group of ailments, people might want to embrace caffeine for its heart health properties.

Now that the beverage has proved to promote repair of heart tissues and safeguard heart muscles from damage, this adds to the coffee health buzz that saw caffeine intake spike by 5 percent. That’s talking from a research by the National Coffee Association, which reported an acute rise in daily consumption of coffee by Americans, from 57% in 2016 to 62% in 2017.

Off cause, we can expect the numbers to hit 70% soon (reading from these health benefits and) bearing the fact that coffee is a beverage and not a drug, and can easily be brewed at home.