Coffee affects cannabis and steroid systems
Northwestern
University
Coffee affects your
metabolism in dozens of other ways besides waking you up, including your
metabolism of neurotransmitters typically linked to cannabis, a study reports. The neurotransmitters related to the endocannabinoid system -- the same ones affected by cannabis -- decreased after drinking four to eight cups of coffee in a day.
That's the opposite of what occurs after someone uses cannabis. The study also gives possible insight in the cause of munchies. Coffee may also increase the elimination of steroids.
It's well known that a
morning cup of joe jolts you awake. But scientists have discovered coffee
affects your metabolism in dozens of other ways, including your metabolism of
steroids and the neurotransmitters typically linked to cannabis, reports a new
study from Northwestern Medicine.
In a study of coffee consumption, Northwestern scientists were surprised to discover coffee changed many more metabolites in the blood than previously known. Metabolites are chemicals in the blood that change after we eat and drink or for a variety of other reasons.
The neurotransmitters
related to the endocannabinoid system -- the same ones affected by cannabis --
decreased after drinking four to eight cups of coffee in a day. That's the
opposite of what occurs after someone uses cannabis. Neurotransmitters are the
chemicals that deliver messages between nerve cells.
Cannabinoids are the
chemicals that give the cannabis plant its medical and recreational properties.
The body also naturally produces endocannabinoids, which mimic cannabinoid
activity.
In addition, certain
metabolites related to the androsteroid system increased after drinking four to
eight cups of coffee in a day, which suggests coffee might facilitate the
excretion or elimination of steroids. Because the steroid pathway is a focus
for certain diseases including cancers, coffee may have an effect on these
diseases as well.
"These are
entirely new pathways by which coffee might affect health," said lead
author Marilyn Cornelis, assistant professor of preventive medicine at
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Now we want to delve
deeper and study how these changes affect the body."
Little is known about
how coffee directly impacts health. In the new study, Northwestern scientists
applied advanced technology that enabled them to measure hundreds of
metabolites in human blood samples from a coffee trial for the first time. The
study generates new hypotheses about coffee's link to health and new directions
for coffee research.
The paper is published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
Drinking lots of
coffee for science
In the three-month
trial based in Finland, 47 people abstained from coffee for one month, consumed
four cups a day for the second month and eight cups a day for the third month.
Cornelis and colleagues used advanced profiling techniques to examine more than
800 metabolites in the blood collected after each stage of the study.
Blood metabolites of
the endocannabinoid system decreased with coffee consumption, particularly with
eight cups per day, the study found.
The endocannabinoid
metabolic pathway is an important regulator of our stress response, Cornelis
said, and some endocannabinoids decrease in the presence of chronic stress.
"The increased
coffee consumption over the two-month span of the trial may have created enough
stress to trigger a decrease in metabolites in this system," she said.
"It could be our bodies' adaptation to try to get stress levels back to
equilibrium."
The endocannabinoid
system also regulates a wide range of functions: cognition, blood pressure,
immunity, addiction, sleep, appetite, energy and glucose metabolism.
"The
endocannabinoid pathways might impact eating behaviors," suggested
Cornelis, "the classic case being the link between cannabis use and the
munchies."
Coffee also has been
linked to aiding weight management and reducing risk of type 2 diabetes.
"This is often
thought to be due to caffeine's ability to boost fat metabolism or the
glucose-regulating effects of polyphenols (plant-derived chemicals),"
Cornelis said. "Our new findings linking coffee to endocannabinoids offer
alternative explanations worthy of further study."
It's not known if caffeine
or other substances in coffee trigger the change in metabolites.
Although Cornelis
studies the effects of coffee, she didn't drink it growing up in Toronto or
later living in Boston.
"I didn't like
the taste of it," Cornelis said. But when she moved to join Northwestern
in 2014, she began to enjoy several cups a day. "Maybe it's the Chicago
water," she mused, "but I do have to add cream and sweetener."
The study was
supported by the American Diabetes Association, the German Federal Ministry of
Health and other sources.
