Gene-Coffee Interactions and Health

Abstract

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, and has been implicated in many health conditions. Coffee is a complex exposure with pleiotropic effects, and the physiological response to coffee varies among individuals. Epidemiological studies of gene-coffee interactions may inform causality, parse the constituents of coffee responsible for disease, and identify subgroups most likely to benefit from increasing or decreasing coffee consumption. Cancers, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, and pregnancy outcomes have been the subject of gene-coffee interaction studies and have yielded promising preliminary results. Most studies have targeted the caffeine component of coffee and have examined only a limited number of genetic variants. Depending upon the disease of study, coffee appears to exert beneficial, adverse, or no effects, which may be more pronounced when accounting for genetics. With continued investment, studies of gene-coffee interactions promise to provide the necessary foundation for personalized coffee consumption recommendations.