MILAN – Increased caffeine intake from coffee may be associated with reduced risk of incident rosacea, according to a study published in JAMA Dermatology.
To better understand the relationship between rosacea and caffeine consumption, study authors evaluated data from the Nurses’ Health Study II, a prospective cohort established in 1989; in the cohort, women were asked about their intake of food and beverages including caffeine consumption (coffee, tea, soda, chocolate) every 4 years.
Participants who responded to a question related to rosacea diagnosis in 2005 were included in the final analysis (N=82,737); 4,945 incident cases of rosacea were identified over 1,120,051 person-years of follow-up.
Consuming caffeine from coffee but not from other foods (tea, soda and chocolate) was associated with less risk of rosacea, a common chronic inflammatory skin disease where the skin appears red and flushed. This observational study included more than 82,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II with data collected on coffee, tea, soda and chocolate consumption.
Compared with people who had less than one serving of caffeinated coffee per month, those who had four servings or more per day had the lowest risk for rosacea. Decaffeinated coffee wasn’t associated with decreased rosacea risk.
Rosacea symptoms may be lessened because of caffeine’s vasoconstrictive and immunosuppressant effects but further studies are to needed to understand the reasons for the observed association.
Authors: Wen-Qing Li, Ph.D., of the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and coauthors
Related Material: The editorial, “One More Reason to Continue Drinking Coffee – It May Be Good for Your Skin,” by Mackenzie R. Wehner, M.D., M.Phil., of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Eleni Linos, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco.
