Excess coffee consumption a culprit for poor health

Cappuccino, latte, or short black, coffee is one of the most consumed drinks in the world. But whether it’s good or bad for your health can be clarified by genetics, as a study [pdf] from the University of South Australia’s Australian Center for Precision Health shows that excess coffee consumption may cause poor health. The results are published in the journal Clinical Nutrition.

In earlier research conducted by the scientists, six cups of coffee a day were considered the upper limit of safe consumption.

“Typically, the effects of coffee consumption are investigated using an observational approach, where comparisons are made against non-coffee drinkers. But this can deliver misleading results,” explained study author Elina Hyppönen, genetic epidemiologist and professor at the University of South Australia, in a press release. “In this study, we used a genetic approach—called MR-PheWAS analysis—to establish the true effects of coffee consumption against 1,117 clinical conditions.”

Using data from over 300,000 participants in the UK Biobank, the researchers examined connections between genetically instrumented habitual coffee consumption and a full range of diseases. The researchers found that moderate coffee drinking is mostly safe. But habitual coffee consumption increased the risks of three diseases—osteoarthritis, arthropathy, and obesity.