Caffeine

THURSDAY, Aug. 15, 2024 -- Chugging coffee, swilling colas or pounding down energy drinks could cause heart damage over time, a new study warns. All of these drinks contain caffeine , and a new study finds that folks who drink more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day appear more likely to develop heart disease. The research was reported Thursday at the American College of Cardiology’s Asia scientific meeting in Delhi, India. The amount of daily caffeine cited in the study is the equivalent of four cups of coffee, 10 cans of soda or two energy drinks, researchers said. Consuming that much caffeine daily significantly raised heart rate and blood pressure over time, researchers found. Those who drank the highest amounts -- 600 milligrams a day -- had significantly elevated heart rate and blood pressure even after five minutes of rest following a three-minute step test. “Due to its effect on the autonomic nervous system, regular caffeine consumption could put otherwise healthy individuals at risk of hypertension and other cardiovascular events,” said lead researcher Dr. Nency Kagathara with Zydus Medical College and Hospital in Dahod, India. “Increasing awareness of these risks is vital to improve heart health for all.” For the study, researchers recruited 92 healthy people between the ages of 18 and 45. All participants were quizzed about their caffeine intake and underwent a three-minute step test to check their heart health. Results showed that nearly 20% of the participants drank more than 400 milligrams of caffeine every day. Women, those employed in business and management roles, and people living in urban areas reported the highest daily caffeine intake, researchers said. “Regular caffeine consumption could disturb the parasympathetic system, leading to elevated blood pressure and heart rates,” Kagathara concluded in a meeting news release. High blood pressure has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease , heart failure, chronic kidney disease and dementia. The condition weakens the heart over time, researchers said. Because these findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 14, 2024 -- Aging Americans, you're not imagining things: Big shifts in physical well-being do occur at certain points in the life span, new research shows. A team at Stanford University has found "massive" changes during a person's mid-40s and early 60s in regards to the molecules and microorganisms that help maintain the body. “We’re not just changing gradually over time; there are some really dramatic changes,” said study senior author Michael Snyder , chair of genetics at Stanford. “It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s. And that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at.” As his team explained it, the human body requires many thousands of different types of molecules to function and thrive. It also needs the symbiotic help of a teeming number of microorganisms -- bacteria, fungi and viruses -- that live inside people and on their skin. However, these molecules and germs aren't static: Their composition changes as people age, according to the new report published Aug. 14 in the journal Nature Aging . Snyder and the paper's lead author Xiaotao Shen were prompted to conduct their analysis when they noticed that the risk for many illnesses don't rise in a steady, linear fashion over time. Instead, risks jump sharply at certain time periods: For example, the big jump in risk for Alzheimer's disease that occurs after 60. Snyder and Shen had already studied the aging of organs, the immune system and metabolism in a group of 108 people. In their new study, the they analyzed blood and other biological samples provided by this group every few months over the span of several years. The Stanford team focused on changes in crucial molecules -- for example, genetic material called RNA, certain proteins and metabolites -- as well as the participants' microbiome, which is the assorted germs that live within and on a person. In total, the researchers tracked age-related changes in more than 135,000 different molecules and microbes, for a total of nearly 250 billion distinct data points. In 81% of cases, changes in molecular or microorganism abundance and composition over time were non-linear, meaning that sharp changes happened at certain periods in life more than others. The mid-40s and the early 60s were two points where these peaks in changes were most pronounced, Synder and Shen found. At first, the researchers assumed that menopause -- which many women go through in their late 40s -- was skewing the results, but it turned out that the same changes were occurring for men during this time. “This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women. Identifying and studying these factors should be a priority for future research,” said Shen, who was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford when he worked on the study. He's now an an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. So, how could the molecular and microbial changes he and Synder spotted affect your health? Many of the shifts could raise a person's odds for heart trouble in the 40s and the 60s, while other changes could dampen the power of the immune system as people enter their 60s, they reasoned. In a person's 40s, changes occurred among molecules that could influence the health of the skin and muscle, as well as the metabolism of substances such as alcohol, caffeine and fat, according to the study. During the 60s, changes occurred that further affected skin and muscle, as well as caffeine metabolism. But changes took place that also affected carbohydrate metabolism, as well as the integrity of the immune system, the heart and the kidneys. According to the researchers, there's a growing consensus that there can be a big difference in a person's chronological age and biological age. Not all of the molecular or microbiome changes were due to genetics, the team theorized. For example, because a person's 40s can often be a stressful time, people tend to drink more -- and that might influence the molecular changes that occur around alcohol metabolism at that time. All of that means that individuals can help minimize any deleterious effects of molecular-level change in their 40s and 60s, Snyder and Shen said, simply by living in a healthy way. “I’m a big believer that we should try to adjust our lifestyles while we’re still healthy,” Snyder said. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.