Dear Reader We have moved the preventive neurology unit blog to a new platform called substack . Google is discontinuing its Feedburner and has not added many new features to blogger for some time, which is why we have decided to move the site. https://preventiveneurology.substack.com/ Thanks Gavin Giovannoni
Are you addicted to coffee? Do you need a reason to justify your addiction? Read on! Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash I justify my coffee addiction (6-8 espresso shots per day) by claiming that I am preventing myself from developing Parkinson’s disease in the future. This is #PreventiveNeurology in practice. Sadly coffee consumption doesn’t protect you from getting Alzheimer’s disease or all-cause dementia. However, I was thrilled to note that it seems to protect you from developing chronic liver disease and dying from liver disease. The molecular mechanisms underlying this are plausible. Caffeine is a non-selective blocker of the A2aA receptor, activation of which stimulates collagen production by hepatic stellate cells, which are the primary mediators of fibrosis. But as decaffeinated coffee is also protective it may be the other ingredients in coffee such as chlorogenic acid, kahweol and cafestol, which protect against liver fibrosis. Whatever the mechanism underlying coffee’s pr