Caffeine
Episodes
Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses coffee's remarkable ability to slow biological aging, reduce DNA damage, and lower cancer risk.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick covers lithium microdosing, reducing homocysteine, aluminum's link to cancer, and beta-alanine and alpha-lipoic acid supplements.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses her supplement stack, avoiding microplastics, creatine for brain health, and mRNA vaccine autoimmunity risks.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses coffee's remarkable ability to slow biological aging, reduce DNA damage, and lower cancer risk.
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Exercise Biomarkers Vitamin E Genetics Eyes Caffeine Folate Sulforaphane Sauna Antioxidant Dairy Polyphenol Supplements Wearable TechnologyDr. Rhonda Patrick covers lithium microdosing, reducing homocysteine, aluminum's link to cancer, and beta-alanine and alpha-lipoic acid supplements.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses her supplement stack, avoiding microplastics, creatine for brain health, and mRNA vaccine autoimmunity risks.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick answers audience questions on various health, nutrition, and science topics in this Q&A session.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick answers audience questions on various health, nutrition, and science topics in this Q&A session.
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In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda describes how circadian rhythms regulate processes including eating behaviors, problem-solving ability, and mood.
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In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda describes the factors determining the best time for exercise according to our circadian clocks.
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In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda describes his habits and addresses questions surrounding the issue of whether time-restricted eating is suitable for everyone.
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In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick goes over harmful substances that can get into breastmilk and negatively affect an infant’s health.
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Comprehensive overview: Breast milk's nutritional and non-nutritional components, and health benefits for mother and infant through breastfeeding
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In this clip, Dr. David Sinclair describes his personal resveratrol and nicotinamide mononucleotide supplementation habits.
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Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses the pros and cons of consuming black coffee and amino acids during fasting.
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Dr. Guido Kroemer discusses the autophagy-inducing qualities of coffee.
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Dr. Satchin Panda discusses the controversy surrounding consumption of black coffee or tea while practicing time-restricted eating.
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Dr. Matthew Walker describes how sound and smell cues played during learning and subsequent sleep can enhance memory formation and retrieval.
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Dr. Matthew Walker describes the role that sleep plays in learning and new memory formation.
Topic Pages
News & Publications
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Consuming the caffeine equivalent of four cups of coffee up to 12 hours before bedtime reduces deep sleep by 21 minutes—undetectable by the consumer. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Caffeine is the world’s most popular psychoactive drug. Often considered harmless, its influence on sleep can be more disruptive than many realize. A recent study found that while a modest amount of caffeine had little effect on sleep, large amounts of caffeine—roughly the amount in four cups of coffee—reduced deep sleep by 21 minutes when consumed within 12 hours of bedtime.
The study involved 23 healthy young men who typically consumed less than 300 milligrams of caffeine daily. Each participant consumed either a placebo or 100 or 400 milligrams of caffeine, taken twelve, eight, or four hours before bedtime, with 48-hour “washout” periods between each condition. The researchers monitored the participants' sleep using sleep diaries and in-home polysomnography and applied statistical models to examine how dose and timing affected subjective and objective sleep quality.
The 100-milligram dose didn’t meaningfully disrupt sleep. However, the 400-milligram dose caused measurable changes when taken up to 12 hours before bedtime, including: - Deep sleep decreased by 21 minutes - Light sleep increased by 6% - Time to reach stable sleep increased by 15 minutes Notably, the participants didn’t notice any difference in their sleep quality.
These findings suggest that while smaller doses of caffeine may be sleep-friendly even late in the day, a large dose can interfere with the structure and quality of sleep, even if taken in the morning. Because caffeine consumers might not perceive the disruption, they may be more likely to repeat the cycle, unknowingly trading long-term rest for short-term alertness. Learn about other factors that influence sleep quality in this clip featuring Dr. Matt Walker.
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That morning cup of coffee might do more than boost alertness—it might promote longevity. While many studies link moderate coffee drinking to better health, the timing of those effects is less clear. However, a recent study found that morning-only coffee drinkers were more than 30% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 40,000 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 1,400 adults in the Women’s and Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study. They searched for patterns in the timing of coffee consumption and tracked participants for an average of nearly 10 years to monitor deaths from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
Two coffee-drinking patterns emerged: a morning-only pattern (4 a.m. to noon) and an all-day pattern. Compared with people who didn’t drink coffee at all, those who drank coffee only in the morning had a 16% lower risk of dying from any cause and a 31% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, indicating that the health benefits of drinking more coffee were strongest among morning-only drinkers. Surprisingly, caffeine didn’t explain the difference. When the researchers adjusted for both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake, the timing of coffee drinking still mattered.
These findings suggest that drinking coffee earlier in the day offers more health benefits than drinking it over the course of the day. Coffee induces autophagy–a critical process that helps reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. Learn more in this clip featuring Dr. Guido Kroemer.
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A daily cup of coffee could reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes by half. academic.oup.com
Drinking your daily cup of coffee or tea might do more than give you a boost—it could lower your risk of developing multiple serious cardiometabolic conditions simultaneously, like diabetes, heart disease, or stroke. A recent study found that moderate coffee or caffeine consumption may cut your risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity by as much as 50%.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 172,000 participants enrolled in the UK Biobank who had no cardiometabolic diseases at the start. Participants reported their coffee, tea, and caffeine consumption; about half provided blood samples for metabolic marker analysis.
They found that people who drank about three cups of coffee daily (or consumed 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine daily) were 40% to 50% less likely to develop multiple cardiometabolic diseases than those who drank little or no caffeine. They also discovered that specific blood markers, such as certain lipid components, were linked to coffee and caffeine consumption and a lower risk of cardiometabolic conditions.
These findings suggest that moderate coffee or caffeine intake reduces the risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases but also slows their progression if they occur. Other evidence points to the many health benefits associated with coffee and caffeine, but it’s crucial to remember their effects on sleep. Learn more in this Aliquot featuring Drs. Guido Kroemer, Satchin Panda, Elissa Epel, Matthew Walker, and Rhonda Patrick
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Caffeine impairs the brain's adaptive response to sleep restriction, reducing gray matter volume. www.nature.com
Nearly three-fourths of adults in the United States don’t get enough sleep, and they often compensate for their sleep losses by consuming caffeine. A recent study found that caffeine and sleep deprivation reduce brain gray matter volume.
The study involved 36 healthy adults who regularly consumed less than 450 milligrams of caffeine daily—about the amount in four or five cups of coffee. During five days of sleep restriction, 19 participants received 300 milligrams of caffeine in coffee, and 17 received decaffeinated coffee. Researchers analyzed changes in the participants' brains and performed PET scans to measure the availability of the A1 adenosine receptor—a protein involved in sleep regulation—and its relationship to brain plasticity.
They found that caffeine and sleep restriction synergistically affected brain regions involved in visual processing, decision-making, executive functions, and regulating sensory information, sleep, and consciousness. Participants who had decaffeinated coffee during sleep restriction had more gray matter than those who had caffeinated coffee. Participants with lower baseline adenosine receptor availability generally demonstrated greater gray matter losses.
These findings suggest an adaptive increase in gray matter volume occurs with sleep restriction, but caffeine impairs this adaptation. Caffeine may have beneficial effects on the body, however, such as boosting autophagy. Learn more in this Aliquot featuring Drs. Guido Kroemer, Satchin Panda, Elissa Epel, Matthew Walker, and Rhonda Patrick.
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Drinking caffeinated coffee reduces the risk of Parkinson's disease by 37 percent. www.neurology.org
Coffee is perhaps best known for its stimulant properties, primarily from its caffeine content. Recent research found that caffeine and its metabolites reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting more than 10 million people worldwide.
The research was part of the EPIC study, a large, prospective cohort that spans six European countries. Researchers looked at how much coffee participants reported drinking and then tracked who developed Parkinson’s. They used statistical models to estimate the risk of developing the disease and analyzed caffeine metabolites in blood samples taken several years before any Parkinson’s diagnosis.
They found that participants who drank the most coffee had a 37 percent lower risk of developing Parkinson’s than non-coffee drinkers. In addition, higher levels of caffeine and its principal metabolites (paraxanthine and theophylline) were associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s, even after considering other risk factors, such as smoking and alcohol use.
These findings suggest that drinking caffeinated coffee protects against Parkinson’s disease. However, coffee is also rich in other bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, alkaloids, and others – many of which exert potent neuroprotective effects.
While some forms of Parkinson’s disease are genetic, most cases involve a complex interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors. Learn more in this clip featuring Dr. Giselle Petzinger.
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Exercising, drinking coffee and having sex are triggers that raise rupture risks for brain aneurysm, retrospective study finds. (2011) www.sciencedaily.com
From the article:
Calculating population attributable risk – the fraction of subarachnoid hemorrhages that can be attributed to a particular trigger factor – the researchers identified the eight factors and their contribution to the risk as:
-Coffee consumption (10.6 percent)
-Vigorous physical exercise (7.9 percent)
-Nose blowing (5.4 percent)
-Sexual intercourse (4.3 percent)
-Straining to defecate (3.6 percent)
-Cola consumption (3.5 percent)
-Being startled (2.7 percent)
-Being angry (1.3 percent)
“All of the triggers induce a sudden and short increase in blood pressure, which seems a possible common cause for aneurysmal rupture,” said Monique H.M. Vlak, M.D., lead author of the study and a neurologist at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Risk was higher shortly after drinking alcohol, but decreased quickly, researchers said.
[…]
Although physical activity had triggering potential, researchers don’t advise refraining from it because it’s also an important factor in lowering risk of other cardiovascular diseases.
“Reducing caffeine consumption or treating constipated patients with unruptured IAs with laxatives may lower the risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage,” Vlak said. “Whether prescribing antihypertensive drugs to patients with unruptured IAs is beneficial in terms of preventing aneurysmal rupture still needs to be further investigated.”
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Caffeine is a bioactive compound widely consumed in beverages, foods, and dietary supplements. Current guidelines recommend that women limit caffeine during pregnancy to 200 milligrams (roughly the amount in a 12-ounce serving) per day. Findings from a new study suggest that caffeine consumption during pregnancy alters neurodevelopment in the fetal brain.
During pregnancy, caffeine crosses the placenta and passes into the fetus and amniotic fluid. Maternal caffeine metabolism decreases during pregnancy, extending the half-life of the compound in the mother’s bloodstream to as much as 18 hours by the end of pregnancy. The placenta and fetus lack the necessary enzymes to metabolize caffeine, so fetal exposure is proportional to maternal intake.
The authors of the study analyzed structural MRI data from more than 9,100 children between the ages of nine and 10 years old who were enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Of particular interest to the researchers were the brain’s white matter tracts – the organized bundles of axons that connect one part of the brain to another. They assessed the effects of caffeine exposure on cognitive measures (working memory, task efficiency) and psychopathology measures (externalization, internalization, somatization, and neurodevelopment).
They found that roughly half of the children were exposed to caffeine during their mothers' pregnancies. Those who were exposed to caffeine exhibited alterations in the microstructure of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (an area of the brain associated with language processing and goal-oriented behavior) and the corticospinal tract of the left hemisphere (an area of the brain associated with motor activity). The children who were exposed to caffeine also exhibited worse outcomes in terms of psychopathology, but their cognitive function was unaffected.
These findings suggest that caffeine exposure during pregnancy leads to neurodevelopmental problems due to microstructural alterations in the brain.
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Expression of specific inflammasome gene modules stratifies older individuals into two extreme clinical and immunological states (2017) www.nature.com
Abstract: Low-grade, chronic inflammation has been associated with many diseases of aging, but the mechanisms responsible for producing this inflammation remain unclear. Inflammasomes can drive chronic inflammation in the context of an infectious disease or cellular stress, and they trigger the maturation of interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Here we find that the expression of specific inflammasome gene modules stratifies older individuals into two extremes: those with constitutive expression of IL-1β, nucleotide metabolism dysfunction, elevated oxidative stress, high rates of hypertension and arterial stiffness; and those without constitutive expression of IL-1β, who lack these characteristics. Adenine and N4-acetylcytidine, nucleotide-derived metabolites that are detectable in the blood of the former group, prime and activate the NLRC4 inflammasome, induce the production of IL-1β, activate platelets and neutrophils and elevate blood pressure in mice. In individuals over 85 years of age, the elevated expression of inflammasome gene modules was associated with all-cause mortality. Thus, targeting inflammasome components may ameliorate chronic inflammation and various other age-associated conditions.
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Daily tea consumption (green, black or oolong) was associated with a 50% reduced risk of cognitive decline. www.sciencedaily.com
Daily tea consumption (green, black or oolong) was associated with a 50% reduced risk of cognitive decline and a 86% lower risk in people genetically predisposed (ApoE4 gene) for Alzheimer’s disease.
The mechanism for the cognitive benefit is unclear and may include catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins and L-theanine which are all anti-inflammatory and have antioxidant activity. However, caffeine itself cannot be ruled out as a contributing factor as well.
While this data is an association and does not prove causation, the data was adjusted for many different factors that affect health and it still found the 50% and 86% reductions. The health factors that were adjusted for in the analysis included age, gender, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, stroke, depression, ApoE4, physical activity, social and productive activities, vegetable and fruit consumption, fish consumption, and daily coffee consumption.