Can Drinking Coffee Prevent Parkinson’s Disease?

Coffee is now known to offer several health benefits including protection against liver and heart disease.

Research into the exciting potential of coffee continues. It is important to find treatments for a variety of conditions that are non-invasive or that remove the need to take drugs.

Numerous studies have looked at whether drinking coffee could prevent or delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease.

What is Parkinson’s disease?

Thought to affect more than 10 million people worldwide, Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological condition. The disease gradually reduces motor functions, and the most common symptoms are tremors, poor balance, stiff muscles, shuffling and an awkward gait. Sufferers may also experience depression, anxiety, insomnia and memory issues.

Parkinson's disease is caused by a loss of nerve cells in the substantia nigra portion of the brain. The loss of nerve cells leads to a reduction in dopamine production and dopamine plays a significant role in regulating movement.

Parkinson’s disease usually impacts people who are over the age of 50.  The reason why nerve cells are lost in sufferers is not known. However, experts believe that a combination of genetic and environmental factors is responsible.

How does drinking coffee help?

Studies have shown that drinking coffee can reduce the number of symptoms experienced and the severity of non-motor symptoms. In addition, research has revealed that coffee drinkers tend to start medication for Parkinson’s later than those who don’t drink coffee.

It was as early as the 1960s that scientists first found an association between coffee and a reduced risk of Parkinson’s (Nefzger, Quadfasel, & Karl, 1968). Researchers originally believed that the benefits of coffee were related only to its caffeine content.  

We don’t want to blind you with science and the science here is certainly complex. So, we will endeavour to keep things simple here.

Caffeine is an antagonist of adenosine 2A (A2A) receptors. An antagonist is a substance that binds to the same receptor as another compound (often called an agonist) but prevents that compound from activating the receptor, effectively blocking its action.

Adenosine is a neuromodulator that impedes motor skills. Caffeine essentially prevents adenosine from slowing down muscle movement.

But, in addition to caffeine, coffee contains more than 1,000 different compounds. These include a fatty acid called Eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide (EHT).

Why is EHT important?

In recent years, EHT has attracted the interest of the research community and has now been the subject of in-depth studies. These have included “Synergistic neuroprotection by coffee components eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide and caffeine in models of Parkinson’s disease and DLB” (Yan et al., 2018).

This study found that Caffeine and EHT work in synergy to protect the brain against α-synuclein-mediated toxicity through maintenance of the enzyme PP2A in an active state. In case you are wondering what α-synuclein-mediated toxicity is, it’s the process by which the protein α-synuclein builds up and damages cells, leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease.

Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is an enzyme that regulates many cellular processes including cell cycle progression, metabolism and apoptosis. It also plays a role in neuronal stabilization. In other words, it is important to keep this enzyme working hard in your brain.

The 2018 study involved experiments conducted on mice with induced neurodegeneration. They were given EHT or caffeine or both. Only mice receiving a combination of caffeine and EHT showed improvements. A combination of caffeine and EHT could be boosting the activity of the PP2A enzyme.

What’s next?

Further research is certainly required and specifically studies that examine the outcomes of humans when treated with a combination of caffeine and EHT – humans with Parkinson’s and those who haven’t yet developed the disease.

There’s only so much you can learn from mice, particularly mice whose neurodegeneration has been induced. This type of research cannot reveal the causes of cell loss in humans. Neither can it show whether a combination of caffeine and EHT could prevent the onset of Parkinson’s disease or slow its progression. The current science is suggestive rather than conclusive

Coffee does seem to impact Parkinson’s disease, but we don’t yet have the full picture. As you might expect, scientists don’t entirely agree about the potential benefits of coffee. However, caffeine and EHT are already being used in treatments for neurological conditions.

It will be interesting to see what new discoveries are made in the coming years.