Diabetes Health Center

Caffeine Risks May Rattle Diabetic People

Diabetes, Coffee, and Caffeine continued...

"We did do one study where we put caffeine in decaf coffee, and still we saw the same exaggeration of glucose after meals in people with diabetes," he says. "So it seems those other compounds in coffee certainly don't eliminate the caffeine effect we have seen."

So what should people do if they have diabetes or are at high risk of diabetes?

"We take a more nuanced posture -- not that coffee is good for you or bad for you, but that maybe it's better to switch to decaf coffee if you have diabetes or the metabolic syndrome," van Dam says.

Lane says people with diabetes are likely to get different effects from coffee.

"I am not going to say that everyone with diabetes has to quit drinking coffee, but I think those who are concerned about their blood sugar not being as low as they'd like it to be should try quitting coffee," he says. "They will be able to tell right away if it improves their glucose control. And it may help reduce their risk of complications of diabetes or reduce their need for additional diabetes medications."

For regular coffee drinkers, Lane says, quitting caffeine may mean three or four days of headache, sleepiness, or mental grogginess. But it does not mean interminable morning misery.

"Every morning we wake up in withdrawal, thinking we need coffee to wake us up -- but it really is just helping us get rid of withdrawal symptoms from not drinking coffee overnight," he says. "Once we get off, well, I wake up feeling better than I did when I was drinking coffee. I don't feel groggy or tired. Everyone I talk to has had a similar experience -- it is not that we become zombies after quitting drinking coffee."

Lane and colleagues report their findings in the February issue of Diabetes Care.