FW: bad news about coffee

["Jacobus, John (OD/ORS)" <jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov>]

I received this on another list server.  I guess I will need to increase the

dosage beyond my normal daily dose of 10 cups a day.  



-- John 

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist 

3050 Traymore Lane

Bowie, MD  20715-2024



E-mail:  jenday1@email.msn.com (H)      



-----Original Message-----

. . .



For my fellow caffeine addicts, there is an interesting paper in this

month's Radiation Research (Caffeine induces TP53-independent G1 phase

arrest and apoptosis in human lung tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner,

Qi et al., Radiation Research 157:166-174).  It looks as though low doses of

caffeine help to block G2 phase arrest that is normally seen after exposure

to radiation and can let a damaged cell go forward in the cell cycle.  On

the other hand, large doses of caffeine helps induce apoptosis by itself and

acts to synergistically enhance radiation-induced apoptosis and G1 phase

arrest.  This happens at levels about 10 times as high as the "bad" effects.

So I guess that the moral of the story is that, if you're going to drink

coffee, it's best to drink a LOT.  The paper didn't tell how many cups of

coffee you have to drink to get to either of these effects.



Andy

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