Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Coffee Consumption Related to Genes

Did you ever wonder why you drink more coffee than your friends? This might be because it is in your genetics. A new gene called PDSS2 was linked to this. Researchers asked about 1,200 people how much coffee they drank and then looked at their genes. This was done on people who lived in Italy and the Netherlands. The conclusion was that people who drank less coffee had a greater expression of the PDSS2 gene. According to Nicola Pirastu, leader of the experiment, "The hypothesis is that people with higher levels of this gene are metabolizing coffee slower, and that is why they drink less." Therefore, these people do not need to drink excess amounts of coffee in order to feel energetic. Knowing this information, researchers believe that this can help explain why people react differently when taking different drugs. However, there needs to be further research on this topic before anything is 'set in stone.'

2 comments:

  1. Coming from someone who drinks anywhere from 3-6 cups of coffee a day, this is pretty interesting. I never really thought of what I would call my "coffee addiction" as potentially being related to my genes but it makes sense. Every one of my family members are heavy coffee drinkers, and knowing that there is a gene linked to this is pretty cool.

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  2. more research is definitely needed. I don't think having the PDSS2 gene necessarily means a person is prone to being addicted, maybe that will breaks down the drug a lot faster, which could lead to addiction. who knows. but it's cool to think that there's a gene that could somehow dictate our behaviors

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