Type 2 diabetes has affected about 422 million population worldwide, causing to increase in the risk of mortality rate due to the number of diseases that attract an individual’s body due to the prevalence of Diabetes. Diabetes has become of the conditions that are now affecting individuals of much younger age.
It is not just the disease itself but also the other health conditions that it brings with dementia, bone fractures, unhealing wounds that sometimes lead to infection, cancer, etc. It is evident that with specific medication and lifestyle changes, the efforts to control diabetes to a level that becomes manageable could sometimes become futile as the disease grips the body of a person forever.
Several studies have tried to bring to a potential change in the lifestyle, reducing individuals’ mortality risk. Practicing more and more physical activity and indulging in exercising are excellent options for living healthily and reducing mortality risk, but they are not the absolute solution to the disease.
A recent study set forth a theory that two or more cups of coffee and four or more cups of green tea in a single day can reduce the mortality risk due to all-health condition or primarily Diabetes by up to 63 percent. This new study’s results were published by the research scholars of a Japan-based Kyushu University, Fukuoka Dental College, and Hakujyuji Hospital in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.
The Study and It’s Findings
Over the years, various researchers have been investigating the benefits of green tea and how it can lower the risk of diabetes. Many researchers noted that consuming green tea has helped people maintain their glucose control and improve insulin sensitivity.
Green tea consumption has its beneficial elements, but at the same time, scientists haven’t able to specifically somehow associate the effects of green tea on type 2 diabetes due to several limitations causing hindrance in obtaining the final significant result. A handful of researchers have tried to observe this green tea and diabetes association to establish a valid theory.
After years of research and analysis, experts have observed that green tea could lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, but coffee has been a competent drink to lower down diabetes. It has derived so much attention that it is believed that coffee could probably help in reducing all the other health condition which could lower the mortality rate in an individual.
It is now more about research and analysis to finally conclude whether green tea and coffee could help a diabetic patient. Some researchers have claimed that research related to food elements sometimes becomes difficult due to limited resources. Still, in coffee and green tea, evidence has been accumulating, which states a significant result on the patient with type 2 diabetes who consume both these drinks.
Researchers from the Japan-based University and Hospital, Kyushu University, Fukuoka Dental College, and Hakujyuji Hospital researched the effect of coffee and green tea on the death risk of people with diabetes to understand how much this hypothetical statement could be validated.
The data sample collected for the research was obtained from the Fukuoka Diabetes Registry, which had already designed those based on the lifestyle and medications consumed by people with type 2 diabetes and how it had affected their condition.
The research data was collected from a total of 4,923 participants with type 2 diabetes, and the participants were all above the age of 20, with an average age of 60 years. Certain information taken from these participants included their existing health conditions, how often they exercised, smoking status, alcohol consumption, sleep duration, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and any symptoms of depression.
What was important in this collection of information was whether these participants consumed green tea or coffee daily. The final step was to observe these participants for over 5.3 years in total to estimate these people’s mortality risk.
As a result of this analysis, experts confirmed that around 309 people died due to diabetes over observation years. This led to the involvement of an independent variable, which would finally validate the theory. Experts added four or more green teacups and two or more coffee cups each day as the highest consumption to lower death risk.
The conclusion made was the lowest odds of death is only when the consumption is higher of both green tea and coffee. The participants who consumed at least one or more cups of green tea and coffee had a relatively lesser risk of death than those who did not consume it at all.
The Conclusive Idea and The Validity of the Research
The statistics of tea and coffee noted by the experts were as such that people consuming;
- two to three cups of green tea plus two or more coffee cups- 51% lower Death Risk due to type 2 diabetes or any other related health state.
- Four or more green teacups plus one cup of coffee- 58% lower Death Risk due to type 2 diabetes or any other related health state
- four or more cups of green tea and two or more coffee cups- 63% lower Death Risk due to type 2 diabetes or any other related health state
After all the analysis done via this study, it could still be said that this theory of lower odds of mortality risk could always not be universally valid. The information obtained by the researchers from the participants was through the source of a questionnaire, and the participants, while giving responses to their food habits and lifestyle, might not have been entirely sure as over the five years time duration habits keep changing.
One of the experts also associated the health factor with educational background and income level in a household stating that,
Higher educational or income levels may be associated with greater coffee consumption; they may also be related to lower mortality risk.
The study’s observational nature requires more practical experimentation and in-depth understanding to know how coffee and green tea in combination could help a patient with type 2 diabetes. It might benefit every individual differently.
