A recent study that was published in the International Journal of Cancer revealed that prostate cancer risk can be lowered by consuming at least three cups of Italian style coffee like cappuccino or espresso. Reports say that the Italian coffee is made with no filters under high pressure and has very high water temperature.
The research was conducted a team of researchers with George Pounis, of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention at IRCCS Neuromed, in Italy as the lead author. "In recent years we have seen a number of international studies on this issue," Pounis said.
"But scientific evidence has been considered insufficient to draw conclusions. Moreover, in some cases results were contradictory. Our goal, therefore, was to increase knowledge in this field and to provide a clearer view," he added.
A Medical News Today report said that 7,000 men hailing from Molise, south Italy were analysed in this study and more than 100 cases of the disease were detected amid them.
The researchers administered their prostate cancer rates and coffee consumption over a span of four years. "The observations on cancer cells allow us to say that the beneficial effect observed among the 7,000 participants is most likely due to caffeine, rather than to the many other substances contained in coffee," Maria Benedetta Donati, the co-author of the study said.
According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is very common amid American men and one out of seven men is diagnosed with it.
The study found out that men who had more than three cups of coffee a day were 53 percent less prone to prostate cancer than those who had less than three cups of coffee per day.
The impact of caffeinated and decaffeinated extracts of Italian coffee on prostate cancer cells was also checked by the researchers. They found that the production of cancer cells was depleted by extracts of caffeinated Italian coffee.
"They prepare coffee [the] rigorously Italian way: high pressure, very high water temperature, and with no filters," co-author Licia Iacoviello, head of the Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology Laboratory at I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed said.
"This method, different from those followed in other areas of the world, could lead to a higher concentration of bioactive substances," Iacoviello added. "It will be very interesting, now, to explore this aspect. Coffee is an integral part of Italian lifestyle, which, we must remember, is not made just by individual."
