# Caffeine

Category: Drugs & Compounds

Caffeine is a purine alkaloid that Ray Peat considered to function analogously to progesterone and carbon dioxide, stabilizing the cell to expel calcium and sodium, suppress glycolysis, and shift metabolism toward an oxidizing state through a shared structural…

11 passages · 1 author · 1990–2025 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/caffeine

## Synthesis

**Caffeine** is a purine alkaloid that Ray Peat considered to function analogously to **progesterone** and **carbon dioxide**, stabilizing the cell to expel calcium and sodium, suppress glycolysis, and shift metabolism toward an oxidizing state through a shared structural electron-attracting effect. [Source 1, 5] This fundamental action underlies its broad protective effects, including blocking pro-inflammatory, pro-glycolytic, and reductive processes involved in carcinogenesis from radiation, chemical carcinogens, or viral processes. [Source 1] Peat argued that caffeine's ability to restore respiratory energy production, partly by inhibiting nitric oxide formation, allows it to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and consequently suppress *neovascularization* and cancer growth. [Source 10]

Mechanistically, caffeine increases the cellular level of **cyclic AMP (cAMP)**, a regulatory substance mediating its inhibition of cancer cell multiplication, and opposes the effects of adenosine secreted by stressed, energy-depleted cells. [Source 3, 6, 8] By raising cAMP and decreasing serotonin in thyroid cells, caffeine tends to locally activate thyroid secretion, and it synergizes with thyroid and progesterone to increase their production or compensate for their deficiency. [Source 4] Peat noted that caffeine's effect on the breast resembles that of progesterone, opposing estrogen's actions, and he dismissed the claim that it causes fibrocystic breast disease as a logical error, since the elevated cAMP in diseased tissue is a protective response that caffeine supports. [Source 3] Caffeine also restrains the enzyme *xanthine oxidase*, which in stress can become a dangerous source of free radicals, and it inhibits the energy-depleting PARP enzyme to prevent a characteristic form of cell death without preventing normal cellular turnover. [Source 2]

The metabolic context of caffeine consumption is critical. Peat emphasized that caffeine increases the cellular consumption of glucose, so drinking it on an empty stomach confounds its intrinsic effects by causing a drop in blood sugar and a compensatory increase in adrenaline. [Source 3] He advised taking coffee with a meal, with cream or milk and sugar, to avoid the anxiety and shakiness associated with hypoglycemia, and reported that people previously intolerant to coffee could become happy drinkers within days using this method. [Source 4, 7] When consumed adequately, caffeine increases blood volume in the brain while decreasing vascular resistance, an effect consistent with its stimulation of brain metabolism and the consequent increase in vasodilating carbon dioxide. [Source 3] In the context of rosacea, caffeine can decrease vasodilation caused by a mismatch between energy supply and demand, though it does not inhibit the physiological vasodilation from carbon dioxide. [Source 8]

Peat viewed the habitual consumption of coffee as a rational, homeostatic self-medication rather than a destructive addiction, noting that his own intake spontaneously dropped from 50 cups to about five per day after he began thyroid supplementation. [Source 9] He cited epidemiological evidence that five or more cups per day were associated with the lowest rates of liver disease, dementia, and cancer, and that coffee and tea together provide roughly 20% of several essential nutrients in some national diets, including B vitamins and manganese. [Source 5, 6, 9] Caffeine also protects against iron overload by inhibiting intestinal iron absorption, and coffee drinkers have been found to have lower levels of cadmium in their kidneys. [Source 2] Peat argued that caffeine's protective effects, including stimulation of DNA repair processes and the immune system, are so profound that they override the harmful effects of the smoky junk in coffee. [Source 9, 11]

## People also ask

### How does caffeine stabilize cells similarly to progesterone?

Peat argued that caffeine and progesterone share a structural electron-attracting effect that stabilizes cells by expelling calcium and sodium, suppressing glycolysis, and shifting metabolism toward an oxidizing state.

### Why did Peat recommend taking coffee with food and sugar?

Peat emphasized that caffeine increases cellular glucose consumption, so drinking it on an empty stomach can cause a drop in blood sugar and a compensatory adrenaline surge, leading to anxiety and shakiness.

### What is caffeine's relationship to cyclic AMP and cancer growth?

The corpus describes caffeine increasing cellular cyclic AMP, a regulatory substance that mediates its inhibition of cancer cell multiplication, partly by opposing adenosine from stressed cells and inhibiting VEGF-driven neovascularization.

## Related concepts

- [Coffee](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/coffee/index.md)
- [Hypertension](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/hypertension/index.md)
- [Myopia](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/myopia/index.md)
- [Salt](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/salt/index.md)
- [Adrenaline](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/adrenaline/index.md)
- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — #36: CO2 and Mineral Balance  |  Thyroid  |  Magnesium  |  Calcium in Health and Disease  |  Current Events

Ray Peat (with Georgi Dinkov) · Interview · Oct 3, 2020 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/76Aou3s0DXgxpDoA9Wr4PS

> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, one of the good things that the favorable steroids do—progesterone, the androgens in particular—is to stabilize the cell in such a way that it can expel calcium and sodium, get rid of the short circuit of the energy process, suppress glycolysis, and move into the oxidizing state. Caffeine works probably analogously to the steroids and carbon dioxide, by a structural electron-attracting effect that they all have in common.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** Have you seen some of the older studies from the '50s and '60s showing that they administered some kind of a vitamin D analog—I think it's called dihydrotachysterol—that was really good at calcifying soft tissue? And then they showed that androgens can actually decalcify the cell; like testosterone and progesterone can get the calcium outside of the cell.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, caffeine does the same thing. I think that's the basis for caffeine's protective effect on the liver, against fatty liver, fibrosis of the liver, and carcinogenesis. All kinds of cancer-causing processes are blocked by caffeine, whether it's radiation, chemical carcinogens, or even viral processes. All of those are pro-inflammatory, pro-glycolytic, reductive processes. Caffeine is like progesterone, supporting the oxidizing structures.

### Source 2 — Caffeine: A Vitamin-Like Nutrient, or Adaptogen

Ray Peat · Newsletter · Aug 10, 2006

> Xanthine (an intermediate in purine metabolism) has two oxygen atoms, and when three methyl groups are added, it becomes trimethyl xanthine, or caffeine. With two methyl groups, it is theophylline, which is named for its presence in tea. We have enzyme systems which can add and subtract methyl groups; for example, when babies are given theophylline, they can convert it into caffeine.
>
> We have enzymes that can modify all of the methyl groups and oxygen atoms of caffeine and the other purine derivatives. Caffeine is usually excreted in a modified form, for example as a methylated uric acid.
>
> One of the ways in which uric acid functions as an “antioxidant” is by modifying the activity of the enzyme xanthine oxidase, which in stress can become a dangerous source of free radicals. Caffeine also restrains this enzyme. There are several other ways in which uric acid and caffeine (and a variety of intermediate xanthines) protect against oxidative damage. Coffee drinkers, for example, have been found to have lower levels of cadmium in their kidneys than people who don't use coffee, and coffee is known to inhibit the absorption of iron by the intestine, helping to prevent iron overload.
>
> Toxins and stressors often kill cells, for example in the brain, liver, and immune system, by causing the cells to expend energy faster than it can be replaced. There is an enzyme system that repairs genetic damage, called “PARP.” The activation of this enzyme is a major energy drain, and substances that inhibit it can prevent the death of the cell. Niacin and caffeine can inhibit this enzyme sufficiently to prevent this characteristic kind of cell death, without preventing the normal cellular turnover; that is, they don't produce tumors by preventing the death of cells that aren't needed.
>
> The purines are important in a great variety of regulatory processes, and caffeine fits into this complex system in other ways that are often protective against stress. For example, it has been proposed that tea can protect against circulatory disease by preventing abnormal clotting, and the mechanism seems to be that caffeine (or theophylline) tends to restrain stress-induced platelet aggregation.
>
> When platelets clump, they release various factors that contribute to the development of a clot. Serotonin is one of these, and is released by other kinds of cell, including mast cells and basophils and nerve cells.

### Source 3 — Caffeine: A Vitamin-Like Nutrient, or Adaptogen

Ray Peat · Newsletter · Aug 10, 2006

> The increased metabolic rate caffeine produces increases the cellular consumption of glucose, so experiments that study the effects of coffee taken on an empty stomach are measuring the effects of increased temperature and metabolic rate, combined with increased adrenaline (resulting from the decrease of glucose), and so confuse the issue of caffeine's intrinsic effects.
>
> In one study,[[15](#ref015)] the drugs were introduced directly into the carotid artery to study the effects on the blood vessels in the brain. Caffeine increased the blood volume in the brain, while decreasing the resistance of the vessels, and this effect is what would be expected from its stimulation of brain metabolism and the consequent increase in carbon dioxide, which dilates blood vessels.
>
> In the whole body, increased carbon dioxide also decreases vascular resistance, and this allows circulation to increase, while the heart's work is decreased, relative to the amount of blood pumped. But when the whole body's metabolism is increased, adequate nutrition is crucial.
>
> In animal experiments that have been used to argue that pregnant women shouldn't drink coffee, large doses of caffeine given to pregnant animals retarded the growth of the fetuses. But simply giving more sucrose prevented the growth retardation. Since caffeine tends to correct some of the metabolic problems that could interfere with pregnancy, it is possible that rationally constructed experiments could show benefits to the fetus from the mother's use of coffee, for example by lowering bilirubin and serotonin, preventing hypoglycemia, increasing uterine perfusion and progesterone synthesis, synergizing with thyroid and cortisol to promote lung maturation, and providing additional nutrients.
>
> One of the most popular misconceptions about caffeine is that it causes fibrocystic breast disease. Several groups demonstrated pretty clearly that it doesn't, but there was no reason that they should have had to bother, except for an amazingly incompetent, but highly publicized, series of articles—classics of their kind—by J. P. Minton, of Ohio State University. Minton neglected to notice that the healthy breast contains a high percentage of fat, and that the inflamed and diseased breast has an increased proportion of glandular material Fat cells have a low level of cyclic AMP, a regulatory substance that is associated with normal cellular differentiation and function, and is involved in mediating caffeine's ability to inhibit cancer cell multiplication. Minton argued that cAMP increases progressively with the degree of breast disease, up to cancer, and that cAMP is increased by caffeine.

### Source 4 — Caffeine: A Vitamin-Like Nutrient, or Adaptogen

Ray Peat · Newsletter · Aug 10, 2006

> The research on caffeine's effects on blood pressure, and on the use of fuel by the more actively metabolizing cells, hasn't clarified its effects on respiration and nutrition, but some of these experiments confirm things that coffee drinkers usually learn for themselves.
>
> Often, a woman who thinks that she has symptoms of hypoglycemia says that drinking even the smallest amount of coffee makes her anxious and shaky. Sometimes, I have suggested that they try drinking about two ounces of coffee with cream or milk along with a meal. It's common for them to find that this reduces their symptoms of hypoglycemia, and allows them to be symptom-free between meals. Although we don't know exactly why caffeine improves an athlete's endurance, I think the same processes are involved when coffee increases a person's “endurance” in ordinary activities.
>
> Caffeine has remarkable parallels to thyroid and progesterone, and the use of coffee or tea can help to maintain their production, or compensate for their deficiency. Women spontaneously drink more coffee premenstrually, and since caffeine is known to increase the concentration of progesterone in the blood and in the brain, this is obviously a spontaneous and rational form of self-medication, though medical editors like to see things causally reversed, and blame the coffee drinking for the symptoms it is actually alleviating. Some women have noticed that the effect of a progesterone supplement is stronger when they take it with coffee. This is similar to the synergy between thyroid and progesterone, which is probably involved, since caffeine tends to locally activate thyroid secretion by a variety of mechanisms, increasing cyclic AMP and decreasing serotonin in thyroid cells, for example, and also by lowering the systemic stress mediators.
>
> Medical editors like to publish articles that reinforce important prejudices, even if, scientifically, they are trash. The momentum of a bad idea can probably be measured by the tons of glossy paper that have gone into its development. Just for the sake of the environment, it would be nice if editors would try to think in terms of evidence and biological mechanisms, rather than stereotypes.
>
> [references]

### Source 5 — #36: CO2 and Mineral Balance  |  Thyroid  |  Magnesium  |  Calcium in Health and Disease  |  Current Events

Ray Peat (with Georgi Dinkov) · Interview · Oct 3, 2020 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/76Aou3s0DXgxpDoA9Wr4PS

> **Georgi Dinkov:** Do you think caffeine has some effect similar to sodium, like it's perceived by the cell as a mild irritant, so the cell ramps up its metabolism in response to being exposed to caffeine?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, that would account for the stimulating effect, but at the same time it has the calming in a bigger sense, stopping the dangerous types of excitation while letting the cell respond to adrenaline.
>
> **Georgi Dinkov:** Do you think there's a certain amount of caffeine daily that's optimal? Because I saw some epidemiological studies saying that anything more than three cups of coffee a day didn't really increase the benefit regarding liver disease and osteoporosis.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Most of the best studies that I've seen found five cups a day. The benefit was still increasing in the population. They said five or more cups per day, for example, had the least liver disease, least dementia, and in some studies the least cancer. So I think it depends on your need. In some people, it might go up to maybe 50 cups a day. When I was hypothyroid, I felt best when I would have 30 to 50 cups, just constantly drinking fairly strong coffee with cream.

### Source 6 — Nutrition for Women

Ray Peat · Book · 1993

> In a study of the thiamine content of dark roast coffee, it was found that one or two cups provide the minimum daily requirement of vitamin B1. Leaves contain magnesium, potassium, vitamins A, K, E and Q10 (ubiquinone), as well as other trace minerals and the B vitamins, so all kinds of tea must contain moderate amounts of these nutrients. About 20% of dietary niacin and manganese can be provided by coffee. In Russia, green tea is often prescribed for its vitamin P or rutin content. Seeds and leaves often contain chemicals which bind materials such as magnesium, zinc, and calcium, but these will break down and release the minerals under various conditions — the fermenting process in tea manufacture, for example, should have this effect. Some nutritionists have noticed that caffeine is said to raise insulin levels in the blood, and from this have reasoned that, since insulin promotes the conversion of glucose to fat, caffeine must be avoided in a reducing diet. Caffeine has a reputation for raising blood pressure, but the evidence is not clear on this point: it seems to be an individual matter whether it will raise or lower blood pressure. Caffeine, in fact, is prescribed in doses equivalent to 2 to 4 cups of coffee (200 to 400 mg.) to relieve hypertensive headaches (J. P. Merrill, in Principles of Internal Medicine, Harrison, 2nd edition, p. 1425). Coffee improves circulation to the brain; Benjamin Franklin and Goethe are said to have used 30 to 65 cups daily. This amount would be close to the maximum safe daily dosage of caffeine, 6 grams (Bennett and Bondy, Principles of Internal Medicine, p. 795). Very small doses of caffeine have a "paradoxical" sedative effect, but this is a familiar effect of anything which raises the brain's energy level. Caffeine (which doesn't necessarily have the same physiological effect as coffee) stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and raises the cellular level of cyclic AMP. Both of these effects promote lipolysis, the removal of fat from storage for use. This may account for the fact that coffee has been found to lower serum cholesterol and triglycerides, while raising the level of free fatty acids. Increased lipolysis would seem to be desirable in connection with a reducing diet.

### Source 7 — Ray Peat Interview on Iron Toxicity, Estrogen, PUFA, Thyroid, and Stress Hormones

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 15, 2025 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UmFIaFm2Mc

> **Josh Rubin:** Right. So, you know, like I said before, the repercussions, you know, like aspirin, everyone listening, don't go out and start popping aspirin. Same thing with coffee. It's all about how you use it. Now, you talk about when you use it or how you use it is very important, correct? Because... You, and correct me if I'm wrong, sipping it after a meal would be more beneficial with some cream and sweetener because it can help with iron absorption after the meal, et cetera, rather than just drinking it on an empty stomach.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, taking it with or after the meal has basically none of the harmful effects. I've known several people who... said that just a sip of coffee would make them feel shattered and shaky for the rest of the day. But I told them to put some heavy cream in it and maybe some sugar and take it with each meal, only with each meal. Right. Within three or four days, these people were happy coffee drinkers.
>
> **Josh Rubin:** Yeah.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Most people that drink coffee.
>
> **Josh Rubin:** Pretty happy. I actually just got an email from a listener, and I don't know if you've ever heard this, that said he thinks adrenal fatigue was coined by Dr. Lamb or Dr. Wilson. I don't know that, but I don't know if that rings a bell. Another question is what do you think about, there's a lot of people out there utilizing, you know, supplementation, enzymes, et cetera. What are your thoughts on that? you know, regulating metabolism, using your nutritional philosophy, and utilizing those things. Do you find them to be beneficial, or do you feel that it can actually cause more of an increase of endotoxin, et cetera?

### Source 8 — Rosacea, inflammation, and aging: The inefficiency of stress

Ray Peat · Article · 2013 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/rosacea-inflammation-aging.shtml

> The excess excitation that produces nitric oxide and lactic acid lowers the energy production of vascular cells, possibly enough to lower their contractile ability (Geng, et al., 1992), causing vasodilation. When flushing is caused by a mismatch between energy supply and energy demand, caffeine can decrease the vasodilation (Eikvar & Kirkebøen, 1998), but when vasodilation is caused more physiologically by carbon dioxide, caffeine doesn't have that effect (Meno, et al., 2005). In a study in which drinking hot water or coffee was compared with drinking room-temperature coffee or caffeine, it was found that the hot liquids caused flushing, but cool coffee and caffeine didn't.
>
> Caffeine increases cells' energy efficiency, and by opposing the effects of adenosine (secreted by cells that are stressed and energy-depleted), it can inhibit vasodilation, angioneogenesis (Merighi, et al., 2007; Ryzhov, et al., 2007), and fibrosis (Chan, et al., 2006).
>
> One nearly ubiquitous source of inappropriate excitation and energy depletion is the endotoxin, bacterial lipopolysaccharides absorbed from the intestine (Wang and White, 1999). That this ubiquitous toxin has a role in rosacea is suggested by the observation that intestinal stimulation, to speed transit through the bowel, immediately relieved symptoms (Kendall, 2002). Increased cortisol (Simon, et al., 1998) and sepsis (Levy, 2007) interfere with mitochondrial energy production.
>
> Simple nervous blushing or flushing is usually considered harmless, and when a person is overheated, the reddening of the skin has the function of facilitating heat loss, to restore a normal temperature. But even nerve-regulated flushing can involve a distinct interference with mitochondrial respiration, and can stimulate the overgrowth of blood vessels.
>
> Cancer's respiratory defect that Warburg identified, fermentation with lactic acid production even in the presence of adequate oxygen, was the result of some kind of injury to the mitochondria. He showed that one of the injuries that could produce aerobic glycolysis was a deficiency of riboflavin. He observed that tumors generally were anoxic, and that cancers typically appeared in the midst of tissue that was atrophying, and suggested that the cancer cells' survival was favored by their ability to live without oxygen.

### Source 9 — 2020.06.10 | Dr Ray Peat Q&A - Weight Loss, Stretch Marks, Hydrogen, Negative Ions and More!

Ray Peat · Interview · Jun 10, 2020

> **Jodelle Fitzwater:** My grandma was a big coffee drinker and she lived to be 94, so I believe there's something to the health effects of it. What about the habit-forming aspect? Because it's so medicinal, it's okay to have a little habit-forming with it?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, but part of that is really what you need . Before I took any thyroid supplement, for many years I recognized my symptoms as being typical of people who were hypothyroid — for example, being nearsighted and having migraine headaches, or classical low thyroid signs — but for various reasons I just didn't get around to trying a supplement. In that period I would drink often 50 cups of coffee a day, and I would stave off the stresses and migraines and such. But I was pouring a huge amount of of coffee through my system, and just to feel functional, keep my energy up so I could work efficiently, first thing I thought of waking up in the morning was a cup of coffee, and then I would just constantly have a cup of coffee in my hand all day. Within a couple of days after I began using a thyroid supplement, I woke up one morning and noticed something was very different, and I wasn't craving coffee. I looked at my coffee drinking behavior and I was only drinking about five cups a day — four to five — and that happened spontaneously over a period of just a few days. So it wasn't that I was addicted to 50 cups a day, it was that my system recognized that as part of its homeostasis. That could be called an addiction, but if it's repairing you and preventing disease, and making you live longer, it's not proper to classify it with addictive things such as morphine. Everything about morphine and the opiates, everything known about it is destructive, creates inflammation, promotes cancer growth and degenerative diseases, and so. It's the basic archetype of a destructive drug and that this addictiveness is just part of that. The reason people feel addicted to to coffee or caffeine is mostly that it is filling in for something they need. There's obviously no need for the opiates.

### Source 10 — Inflammation, adaptation, and aging

Ray Peat · Newsletter · 2021

> Caffeine, which can restore respiratory energy production (for example by inhibiting nitric oxide formation), inhibits the formation of VEGF and consequently inhibits neovascularization and prevents the retinopathy of prematurity. In other tissues, similar effects of caffeine can inhibit cancer growth.
>
> > As chronic inflammation progresses to fibrosis and loss of normal tissue functions, the conditions of stress increase the likelihood that the transposable elements will be activated increasing chromosomal instability and physiological malfunctions.
>
> The premature baby, suddenly leaving its low oxygen, high CO2, sugar rich environment, and experiencing the extreme new environment of a hospital incubator, is an extreme example of the way that our normal adaptive reactions can become destructive when misdirected by an unfavorable environment. The normal person, living many years in an environment with limited amounts of the most supportive factors, and varying amounts of many harmful factors, experiences a gradual accumulation of the tissue changes that are produced by the misdirected adaptive factors. Cytokines that were constructive under the conditions of gestation, become pro-inflammatory, profibrotic, and harmful in a variety of ways, for example promoting the neovascularization of age-related macular degeneration or of rosacea or of tumor growth.
>
> In childhood and maturity, vigorous oxidative metabolism can maintain some of the essential protective factors of gestation, including adequate levels of glucose and carbon dioxide, good temperature regulation, and avoiding overproduction of superoxide and lactate. In these conditions, the cytokines can contribute to adaptation and continuing development. As inhibitors of oxidative metabolism such as polyunsaturated fats accumulate in the tissues, the dominance of protective factors decreases, and the cytokines become more likely to produce inflammation.
>
> As chronic inflammation progresses to fibrosis and loss of normal tissue functions, the conditions of stress increase the likelihood that the transposable elements will be activated (Andrenacci, et al., 2020), increasing chromosomal instability and physiological malfunctions.
>
> Many years ago Gaetan Jasmin (1956, 1968) showed that low blood glucose intensifies abnormal inflammatory reactions, and that increasing blood glucose minimizes dangerous anaphylactoid reactions.

### Source 11 — Supplement Safety

Ray Peat · Newsletter · May 1990

> ## Substance Abuse
>
> The Center for Science in the Public Interest got a lot of publicity a few years ago when it petitioned the FDA to require warning labels on products that contain caffeine. Many other groups circulate warnings about the dangers of coffee. When coffee was introduced into Europe, some people seemed to think it was an evil witch's brew; Bach's Coffee Cantata ridiculed the great fear of coffee.
>
> To make false claims about anything abuses the truth. A network of mistaken beliefs can lead to a perverted culture, which ignores important issues because of an obsession with false issues. I think it is useful now and then to outline the kinds of mistakes that are being made regarding the abused substances, coffee and caffeine.
>
> Dr. Minton at Ohio State, and the mass media which mindlessly echoed his beliefs, started a cultish idea that caffeine caused cystic breast disease. His publications are marvels of ignorance and irrationality, which probably someday will be used in college classes to illustrate America's blind faith in the cult of medicine. Other studies found an entire lack of association between caffeine and breast disease, but I will not be surprised if caffeine is ultimately found to be therapeutic for some types of cystic breast disease, because of its effects on hormones and cell-regulation.
>
> Decaffeinated coffee was found to be associated with cancer of the pancreas. A residue of solvent in the coffee is a likely candidate for explaining the association, since the other groups found by epidemiologists to have a high rate of pancreatic cancer were people who work in gasoline stations and in dry-cleaning businesses. Several studies have found caffeine to have a protective effect against cancer. For example, Würzner, et al. found that tumor incidence in rats fed coffee went down as the caffeine content went up.
>
> Caffeine has several effects which protect against cancer. It strongly protects against the cancers caused by chemical carcinogens (including those in smoke), and even against those caused by ultraviolet radiation. It stimulates the repair process which corrects mutations (in mammals, but not in bacteria), and it stimulates the immune system.
>
> I think some of the beneficial effects of caffeine result from its stimulation of the thyroid gland, and of normal respiration. While it stimulates normal respiration it has an anti-inflammatory action, which probably involves both prostaglandin regulation and an antioxidant action.

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