Coffee protects against prostate cancer

Caffè e prostate sono cattivi compagni?

It is often said that you should avoid drinking coffee because it could stimulate inflammation of the prostate.

So should we avoid drinking coffee to avoid the risk of developing a prostate condition or should we only do it if we already suffer from something?

Some studies even seem to support that coffee consumption can lower the risk of developing a prostate cancer.

From research conducted in Italy, which involved 7000 men, it would appear that the risk of developing prostate cancer is reduced by over 50% in those who drink more than three cups a day.

To try to understand the mechanism behind this effect, laboratory experiments were conducted from which it emerged that the protective effect of coffee is given by caffeine.

But wasn't it said that coffee was actually carcinogenic?

The idea that coffee can increase the risk of cancer comes from the fact that during the roasting process of coffee beans a molecule called acrilammide, under the spotlight for its potential carcinogenic effect. However, a study conducted byInternational Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that the acrylamide content in coffee beans is far from being dangerous for health, concluding that on the basis of the data currently available, drinking coffee is not carcinogenic.

On the contrary, it seems that overall there may be benefits to drinking coffee with regards to tumors.

How does coffee protect against tumors?

The coffee bean, like other products of plant origin, contains numerous substances including several types of antioxidants, which are believed to have a protective effect against cancer. But in addition to its antioxidant content, it seems that coffee has regulatory properties on the immune system.

Inside tumors, some areas are less oxygenated than others. The lack of oxygen alters the metabolic processes of tumor cells, leading to the accumulation of a molecule called adenosine. Adenosine can bind through receptors on the surface of some immune cells, suppressing their activation. Several studies have highlighted the importance of adenosine in the tumor survival strategy, demonstrating that blocking adenosine receptors can be a promising strategy in cancer therapy.

It has been seen that the caffeine molecule can compete with adenosine for binding to its receptors (source). Laboratory studies have in fact shown that the administration of caffeine was able to delay tumor growth precisely because it prevented the inhibitory function of adenosine on the immune system.

Numerous epidemiological studies on humans have shown that coffee consumption is generally associated with a lower risk of cancer-related death and to a lower probability of developing some types of cancer, such as uterine and endometrial cancer (fonte), liver (source), of colon (source). For other types of cancer, however, the available data was judged insufficient or inadequate to establish a possible connection between coffee consumption and cancer. The main problem with some of these studies was the fact that some parameters in addition to coffee consumption were not taken into consideration. For example, it was underestimated that many subjects associated a cup of coffee with a cigarette! In the case of bladder cancer, for example, early research suggested that coffee increased the risk of cancer, but it was later discovered that the real causal factor was smoking.

In general it emerged that the greatest benefits were found in those people who drank among 4 to 6 cups of coffee a day (we are generally talking about studies conducted in the United States, therefore about American coffee!). Beyond this quantity, on the contrary, some of the effects of too much caffeine begin to be evident, such as sleep inhibition, headaches, stomach aches...

So is coffee always good for the prostate or not?

Although it has been observed that coffee has benefits in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer, for other pathologies that affect this organ there appear to be opposite effects.

For men affected by enlargement of the prostate or prostatitis, constant coffee consumption can worsen symptoms as this ingredient irritates the bladder. All these symptoms and disorders can lead to having to get up continuously at night and lead to incontinence.

Coffee irritates the bladder precisely because it increases urine production, so the bladder will be full in a short time and at the same time causes contractions of this organ.

For this reason, individuals with the enlarged prostate or those suffering from infections or prostatitis should reduce their coffee consumption as much as possible. It would also be preferable to completely eliminate it from your diet at least for some periods.

However, it should be underlined that, even if caffeine increases the state of irritation of the prostate, there is no evidence that it can be the triggering cause.