4 ms·

It's an interesting theory, and researchers probably need to account for that. But although it probably could explain some of the effect, there's one that I don

It's an interesting theory, and researchers probably need to account for that. But although it probably could explain some of the effect, there's one that I don't think it can explain. One of the diseases that coffee helps with is gout. Gout is more or less a special form of arthritis. In most cases the root cause is genetic deficiency in how well your kidneys remove uric acid from your blood. This leads to a buildup of it, and having no place else to go, more and more of it accumulates in your joints. Then your immune system does its best to deal with a foreign substance, and sometimes this leads to runaway inflammation that causes excruciating pain. Anyway, I can't see a connection between the kidneys' ability to filter out one specific chemical and coffee drinking behavior. Particularly since gout is usually asymptomatic for years while deposits build up in your body, and then you have episodes (attacks) where inflammation gets out of control for a while before subsiding.

Jarwain 6y ago
The only connection that I can think of is how caffeine is a diuretic. If you're using the restroom more often, and drinking more fluids, it might result in more opportunities to filter out more uric acid or something along those lines. I'm not a doctor though, so grain of salt
- adrianmonk 6y ago
  That would make sense, but paradoxically, diuretics make gout worse. It may be because the fluids aren't always replaced, and if you have less fluids in you, then the concentration of uric acid goes up. (And the accumulation of uric acid in the joints happens because blood levels reach saturation and then some of it precipitates.) The crazy thing about coffee and gout is, since it's a diuretic, it should make gout worse, but instead it seems to make it better. Incidentally, I'm not a doctor either. Just an interested layman. So take everything I said with a grain of salt too. Anyway, gout is super complicated since it involves metabolism AND the renal system AND the immune system AND the joints, so really nobody understands it completely.

Jarwain 6y ago

The only connection that I can think of is how caffeine is a diuretic. If you're using the restroom more often, and drinking more fluids, it might result in more opportunities to filter out more uric acid or something along those lines. I'm not a doctor though, so grain of salt

adrianmonk 6y ago
That would make sense, but paradoxically, diuretics make gout worse. It may be because the fluids aren't always replaced, and if you have less fluids in you, then the concentration of uric acid goes up. (And the accumulation of uric acid in the joints happens because blood levels reach saturation and then some of it precipitates.) The crazy thing about coffee and gout is, since it's a diuretic, it should make gout worse, but instead it seems to make it better. Incidentally, I'm not a doctor either. Just an interested layman. So take everything I said with a grain of salt too. Anyway, gout is super complicated since it involves metabolism AND the renal system AND the immune system AND the joints, so really nobody understands it completely.