咖啡与帕金森病的关联

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根据今天发表在《神经病学》杂志上的一项研究,大量饮用咖啡的人可能不太容易患上帕金森病(PD)。但在您急着去续杯之前,请考虑这一点:咖啡本身可能并没有赋予抵抗力。

梅奥诊所的神经病学家沃尔特·罗卡和他的同事研究了196名患有该疾病的人和196名未患病的人。有趣的是,83%的帕金森病患者是经常饮用咖啡的人,而92%的对照组将咖啡作为他们日常生活的一部分。同样,患有该疾病的人中有21%每天喝四杯或更多杯咖啡;对照组中有37%的人这样做。在那些患有帕金森病的参与者中,饮用咖啡的人比不饮用咖啡的人晚八年患上该疾病。此外,研究人员发现,酗酒者和使用嚼烟和鼻烟的人也不太容易患上帕金森病。(该团队还测试了据称吸烟与帕金森病之间的负相关性,但未能检测到相关性。)

考虑到这些结果,该团队怀疑咖啡本身并不能预防帕金森病(尽管他们尚未排除这种可能性)。相反,他们认为,可能是患有帕金森病的人在早期生活中表现出某种性格,导致他们避免使用不健康或容易上瘾的物质,如烟草、酒精和咖啡。事实上,该团队报告称,后来患上帕金森病的人有时被描述为道貌岸然、尽责、谨慎和有条理。“这些性格特征可以归纳为‘降低寻求新奇’的概念,”他们写道。“寻求新奇的行为与药物滥用和成瘾有关,反过来,已发现帕金森病病例中比对照组受试者中更为少见。”

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor at 大众科学 focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for more than 25 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home, to the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, to the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and on a "Big Day" race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Kate is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow Wong on X (formerly Twitter) @katewong

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