The best part of waking up is ... antioxidants, chlorogenic acids and hundreds of hardly researched chemical compounds in your cup?
The researchers at Vanderbilt's Institute for Coffee Studies think so.
The ICS was founded in 1999 within the department of psychiatry at the Vanderbilt Medical Center. Funded by a grant from a consortium of coffee-producing Latin American countries, the institute is dedicated to studying the health effects of coffee consumption.
Dr. Peter Martin, the director of ICS since its inception, called the institute a "novel idea," noting that the institute is the only one in the nation dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of coffee.
"Most coffee studies in the past focused on caffeine and tried to demonstrate that coffee is bad for you," Martin said. "However, epidemiologic studies consistently show that coffee may be beneficial."
Separate studies have found correlations between coffee consumption and a wide array of health benefits, such as lower suicide rates, lower rates of Type 2 diabetes and lower rates of cirrhosis among alcoholics.
But exactly how does coffee produce these effects? ICS researchers are trying to find out.
"(Researchers at ICS) use the scientific method to understand the constituents of coffee," Martin said, "and how coffee may be helpful."
Martin said caffeine accounts for a tiny portion of coffee's chemical makeup, but the hundreds of other compounds have received little scientific attention. The ICS focuses its research on chlorogenic acids and other chemicals that are thought to be antioxidants or affect neurotransmission in the brain.
As director of the Vanderbilt Addiction Center, Martin is particularly excited about potentially studying the effects of chlorogenic acids in sobriety studies. Their research in rodents suggests they may have the same effects as naltrexone, a medication used to manage alcohol dependence.
However, Martin recognizes the equal importance of coffee's other benefits and notes that Vanderbilt is a perfect place to study such a complex substance.
"Vanderbilt is recognized as having one of the best pharmacology departments in the country," he said.
The presence of a Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies doesn't hurt, either.
According to the ICS Web site, the institute moved to the Vanderbilt Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies in 2007 "in order to expand its mission beyond the biomedical aspects of coffee to also include the historical, literary, sociological and economic importance of this crop, the second most important commodity in the world behind oil."
Professor Edward Fischer is an ICS affiliate and director of Vanderbilt's Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies who works closely with Martin.
"There is no other academic center for coffee studies in the country," Fischer said. "Thus, what we are doing here - bringing together medical specialists, anthropologists, historians and so on, all to speak about a common topic - is really unique and valuable. ... Coffee has become so much a part of our everyday lives that we may forget what an important crop it is - economically, socially, historically."
-Tamesha Derico can be reached at tamesha.s.derico@vanderbilt.edu
