A new study published recently in the journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation suggests that consuming more caffeine might help reduce the risk of death for people who suffer from chronic kidney disease.
The research team already saw an inverse relationship between coffee consumption and mortality in the general population. However, the relationship between caffeine consumption and mortality for people with chronic kidney disease remains uncertain. Researchers have hypothesized that caffeine consumption might be associated with lower mortality among people with chronic kidney disease.
This protective effect of caffeine might exist because of its effects at vascular level, since caffeine is known to lead to the release of substances, such as nitric oxide, that can improve the function of the vessel.
Nearly 89 percent of the adult USA population consumes caffeine daily, and approximately 14 percent of adults in the United States suffer from chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease is linked with increased health care costs and a higher risk of death. Researchers predict that the prevalence of the disease is probably going continue to increase worldwide.
The study worked with data collected from 4,863 American people that were observed from 1999 to 2010. When compared with people who had consumed a smaller amount of caffeine-containing beverages, caffeine consumers were more likely to be male, non-Hispanic white, have a higher education level and higher annual income. They were also more likely to be current or former smokers, have higher alcohol consumption, and have had fewer previous strokes.
The results of the analysis indicate that there’s an inverse association between caffeine consumption and all-cause mortality in participants with chronic kidney disease. Compared to people who consumed less caffeine, patients that consumed higher levels of caffeine demonstrated nearly a 25% reduction in the risk of death over a median follow-up of 60 months.
According to Miguel Bigotte Vieira, one of the study’s lead authors, “Our study showed a protective effect of caffeine consumption among patients with chronic kidney disease. The reduction in mortality was present even after considering other important factors such as age, gender, race, smoking, other diseases, and diet. These results suggest that advising patients with kidney disease to drink more caffeine may reduce their mortality. This would represent a simple, clinically beneficial, and inexpensive option, though this benefit should ideally be confirmed in a randomized clinical trial.”
The author stresses that this observational study cannot prove that caffeine reduces the risk of death in patients with chronic kidney disease, but only suggests that caffeine possibly might have a protective effect.