No-sugar coffee may protect against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s diseases

People who always drink coffee, particularly without sugar added, are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) or Parkinson’s disease (PD), suggests a study.

On the other hand, sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened coffee appears to show no protective benefits against ADRD and PD.

“Observational studies have suggested associations between amount of coffee consumption and decreased risk of neurodegenerative diseases,” the authors said. “However, these studies do not consider differences among coffee types, including sweetened, unsweetened, caffeinated, and decaffeinated varieties.” 

In this study, 204,847 participants (44.7 percent males) from the UK Biobank were included in this prospective study. The associations between coffee type and neurodegenerative outcomes were explored using Cox proportional hazards models.

Eligible participants were categorized into five groups based on their coffee consumption: noncoffee consumers, >0–1 cup/day, ≥1–2 cups/day, ≥2–3 cups/day, and ≥3 cups/day.

A total of 1,696 cases of ADRD, 1,093 cases of PD, and 419 neurodegenerative-related deaths were reported over a median follow-up of 9 years.

Multivariate analysis revealed that the highest intake of unsweetened and caffeinated coffee was associated with the lowest risks for ADRD (hazard ratio [HR], 0.75, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.62–0.91), PD (HR, 0.71, 95 percent CI, 0.56–0.91), and neurodegenerative-related death (HR, 0.67, 95 percent CI, 0.44–1.01) compared with noncoffee intake.

Notably, no significant associations were seen in decaffeinated and sugar/artificially sweetened coffee groups (p>0.05).