Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Caffeine consumption has been associated with lower risks for multiple diseases, including type II diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, but the mechanism underlying these protective effects has been unclear. A new study now shows that caffeine promotes the movement of a regulatory protein into mitochondria, enhancing their function and protecting cardiovascular cells from damage. The work, publishing 21 June in the open access journal PLOS Biology [...] found that the protective effect was reached at a concentration equivalent to consumption of four cups of coffee, suggesting the effect may be physiologically relevant.
The authors have previously shown that at physiologically relevant concentrations (i.e. levels reached after four or more cups of coffee) caffeine improved the functional capacity of endothelial cells, which line the interior of blood vessels, and that the effect involved mitochondria, the cell's energy powerhouses.
Here, they showed that a protein called p27, known mainly as an inhibitor of the cell cycle, was present in mitochondria in the major cell types of the heart. In these cells, mitochondrial p27 promoted migration of endothelial cells, protected heart muscle cells from cell death, and triggered the conversion of fibroblasts into cells containing contractile fibers -- all crucial for repair of heart muscle after myocardial infarction. They found that caffeine induced the movement of p27 into mitochondria, setting off this beneficial chain of events, and did so at a concentration that is reached in humans by drinking four cups of coffee. Caffeine was protective against heart damage in pre-diabetic, obese mice, and in aged mice.
Journal Reference: Niloofar Ale-Agha, et al. CDKN1B/p27 is localized in mitochondria and improves respiration-dependent processes in the cardiovascular system—New mode of action for caffeine. PLOS Biology, 2018; 16 (6): e2004408 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2004408
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Sulla on Saturday June 23 2018, @03:04PM (5 children)
Are we SoylentNews or InfoWars now? Not that im against us having our own series of pills to protect us against free radicals and breakdown of mitochondria - but it sounds like a lot of work.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @03:14PM (4 children)
WTF does a story about caffeine have to do with InfoWars? You're going to have to explain this one by way of a gay frogs analogy.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Saturday June 23 2018, @03:59PM (3 children)
When i am waiting for Coast to Coast to come on i sometimes catch a couple minutes of InfoWars commercials.
Sounds a lot like a commercial that you might hear followed by him hawking his pill which is an all natural blend of various caffeine substances picked at the right time of the year to help with heart health. Has caffeine from several sources because they activate differently in the body.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:54PM (2 children)
Alright, well, that's an association most people are not going to have with news about caffeine.
Me, I was encouraged by the headline because I drink about a pot of coffee a day. Always nice to find out your vices are actually virtues.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday June 25 2018, @06:17AM (1 child)
I'm just completely unsurprised he listens to shit like Infowars. Explains a hell of a lot.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 25 2018, @12:51PM
Yeah, non-ironic consumption of Infowars or its ilk borders on the pathological. For entertainment purposes, as in, "Look at all the gibbering lunatics foaming at the mouth," it has its place. Keeping an eye on the same also has value for defense, because when things blow up it starts at places like those, not among the crowd that watches the Today Show.
O tempora, o mores, right?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Saturday June 23 2018, @04:12PM (4 children)
Given the amount of coffee I drink, I must have the heart of a 20 year old.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @04:41PM (1 child)
Did they sell it to you so they could afford better smashed avo on toast?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 23 2018, @09:58PM
I never understood this trend. When I get my grubby hands on fresh avocados, I peel and pit them and place them in their form directly on the place before seasoning them with salt and pepper or Tabasco sauce.
Oh yeah and coffee rocks. During a typical workday I will bomb almost exactly 4 cups of coffee, and much more if I have to pull an all-nighter. Coffee is as divine as garlic, rarely in nature do you find things which are as useful and versatile as coffee and garlic.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:48PM (1 child)
You and me both. I had to cut my caffeine intake in half in the past few years to keep from my heart being so awesome that it broke all the stuff around it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:02PM
One late-night study session I was already beaned-up, but decided I needed more coffee so I ordered an iced Vietnamese because I wanted something sweet. What I didn't know was that the place in question made their iced Vietnameses with 4 shots of espresso. After drinking it I was convinced that the government was out to get me, and any police siren in the background meant that they would be rappelling from the helicopters any second to take me away. For the next painful hour, I knew what it was like to be on a PCP binge.
Coffee and cigarettes are great. But if you OD on them, there is nothing more terrifying than a coffee OD, and there is nothing more sickening and painful than a tobacco OD.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by opinionated_science on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:08PM (7 children)
The only way to extract energy for a Eukaryote is via the electron transport chain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_transport_chain [wikipedia.org]
Here's a pop question for those doing homework.
If humans could photosynthesize, how much energy would be produced?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:49PM (3 children)
By this community? Not much, though I'd break the curve with as much as I go fishing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Saturday June 23 2018, @07:50PM (2 children)
I surfed this morning off Pismo Beach. Got my dose of sunshine too. I see people fishing off the pier and I've been thinking about giving it a try, catch a few surf perch for breakfast.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:41PM (1 child)
I had slugs all over my asparagus and spent a lot of time squeezing the shit out of hundreds of these fuckers. But it was cloudy and lightly spitting rain, so very little sunshine for me.
:(
Fucking slug/beetle things killing my next year's harvest.....mumble grumble get off my lawn and asparagus!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Saturday June 23 2018, @11:40PM
That sounds gross in an interesting, I'd-like-to-try-it-once kind of way.
Gotta save them asparagus.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:56PM (2 children)
I would like to photosynthesize. It would both free me forever from the hamster wheel of modern capitalism and enable my nudism.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:14AM (1 child)
That's the stuff that makes plants green. And possibly, your skin would be green. You see people in movies, they have green skin because they're aliens. You can tell by the color which ones are aliens. And it's not a great look.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:25AM
Forwarded by a friend earlier today--pic of a home made sign that read,
"All in all, you're just another prick with no wall."
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:41PM
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by ChrisMaple on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:02PM (3 children)
No tests on humans yet, but now we know how to help prevent heart attacks in mice.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Adamsjas on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:58PM (1 child)
The mice have been running experiments on humans for ages.
Such subtlety, one has to admire it.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Sunday June 24 2018, @08:27PM
A Douglas Adams fan, I see.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Saturday June 23 2018, @08:43PM
Well don't tell them then, before those mice will raid our coffee beans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:27AM
TFA didn't mention who funded this study.
What are the odds that there is "big coffee" money behind these researchers...?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:38PM
Yes, but how many cups are required to achieve levitation? A pot and a half in today i feel i'm close, but don't want to overdo it and cross the line to spontaneous combustion.
Washington DC delenda est.