An awakening drink can tell about the preferences of relatives
Coffee is considered one of the most consumed drinks in the world. The researchers wondered about the transmission of coffee preferences from parents to children and compared the genetic characteristics of coffee consumption from a database in the US with an even larger data set in the UK.
Researchers from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and the University of California, San Diego used genetic data as well as self-reported coffee consumption data to conduct a genomic association study. These types of studies use large amounts of genetic data to help researchers identify genetic variants, genes, and biological traits associated with a particular disease or health trait.
“We used these data to identify regions of the genome that are associated with whether a person is more or less likely to drink coffee, and then identify genes and biology that may underlie coffee consumption,” — explains lead researcher Hayley Thorpe.
The results showed a genetic influence on coffee consumption. In other words, specific gene variants inherited from parents influence how much coffee a person drinks. However, the findings regarding the health effects of a cup of coffee were less clear.
A genome-wide association study conducted by 23andMe Research involving 130,153 people was compared with a similar UK Biobank database of 334,649 UK residents.
The comparison revealed a strong positive genetic association between coffee consumption and adverse health effects such as obesity and substance use.
“This does not mean that someone who drinks coffee will use other substances or become obese, but rather that a genetic predisposition to coffee drinking is somehow related to these traits,” — reassures Thorpe.
The results became more complex when it came to mental disorders: “Look at the genetics of anxiety, for example, or bipolar disorder and depression: according to 23andMe, they tend to be positively correlated with genetics coffee consumption.» They found a positive association between the genetics of coffee consumption, as measured by 23andMe, and mental disorders, but in the UK Biobank study, these associations tended to be negative, Thorpe said. There are many reasons for this, such as differences in tea and coffee consumption between the US and UK.
More work is needed to understand the relationship between coffee and other substance use and health problems in different countries, Thorpe said. conditions.