Nuclear receptor 4A1 linked to health effects of coffee: study

https://sciencex.com/news/2026-04-coffee-doesnt-key-biological-pathway.html

by pseudolus • 3 months ago

148 106 3 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_receptor_4A1

I was never a coffee drinker, but I became interested because what was said in Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s newsletter. ( There is a ton of medical research covered in there. )

I didn’t dig in too deeply, but started drinking a morning cup of sugar free double mocha cappuccino, to help my workouts.

If I’m fooling myself, don’t tell me. I like the cappuccino.

rhyperior2• 3 months ago

Episode #103, @FoundMyFitness on Spotify podcasts. All about coffee’s benefits, including for exercise.

zingababba• 3 months ago

Nice, maybe it balances out nicotine. People who don't pair caffeine with nicotine simply have no clue what they are missing ;)

neya• 3 months ago

People who don't pair caffeine with nicotine simply have no clue what they are missing ;)

We do, and that's called cancer;)

jonnybgood• 3 months ago

Is there research that links nicotine to cancer? I’m unable to find anything that would suggest nicotine as cancer causing.

gavmor• 3 months ago

It's the endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, increased arterial stiffness, and accelerated atherosclerosis that turn me off.

sfpotter• 3 months ago

"Serious delirium!"

maximinus_thrax• 3 months ago

I quit smoking a long time ago but if there's one thing I'm missing / craving is a hot cup of coffee with two cigarettes on an empty stomach during cold winter mornings... Fuuuuck.

technothrasher2• 3 months ago

"While caffeine is the major individual component of coffee, the study suggests that it may not be the primary driver of these health effects."

All you haters that give me grief for drinking my daily cup of decaf can shut up now.

obsidianbases13• 3 months ago

Are you familiar with the process of extracting the caffeine in decaf?

Unfortunately it isn't without potential downsides.

didgeoridoo• 3 months ago

Supercritical CO2 extraction is pretty innocuous. Just buy good decaf from a place that doesn’t bathe their beans in toxic waste.

throwaway902984• 3 months ago

There are multiple methods that James hoffman breaks down in this video iirc, if anyone is curious.

https://youtu.be/yYTSdlOdkn0?si=uAo3pipjBA91OV5V

technothrasher2• 3 months ago

Yes, I know the four main methods of decaffeination. The haters have gone down this road with me many times. Why can't people just let me drink my decaf? It's like they can't enjoy their caffeine unless everybody does. It's weirdly pushy.

jayd16• 3 months ago

The decaf tries to warn you itself with its bright carafe colorings. In nature that means "Do not touch me, I am poison."

reactordev• 3 months ago

except on packaging which means "Buy me, I'm sugar".

JXavierH2• 3 months ago

I'm all for decaf 100%.

EbNar• 3 months ago

Why should someone hate on you just because you enjoy decaf?

globular-toast• 3 months ago

It's common amongst "real men" types. It's basically making fun of someone because they actually like coffee and aren't just drinking it for the drug.

m463• 3 months ago

if you love coffee, drinking decaf can let you do it all day.

fullstop• 3 months ago

Hey, man, drink what you want. It doesn't change my life in any way, shape, or form. But I have to ask, have you seen the image describing where decaf coffee comes from?

https://i.imgur.com/aDt06Lg.png

I do find it amusing. But drink your decaf, brother, do what works for you.

zerr• 3 months ago

What would be a healthy drink that tastes like a (sweet) coffee but without caffeine?

ehnto• 3 months ago

I should hope you're not being serious! In case anyone thinks this is real, decaf is not made from the dirt. It's beans that have gone through one of a few different processes. Swiss water method is what I prefer due to the low chemical processing.

spopejoy• 3 months ago

My question is whether espresso-method coffee has all the same properties. The study itself clearly states "brewed coffee" and they brew the crap out of it ("extraction in boiling water for 8–10 min"), I can't take brewed coffee on the regular b/c it upsets my stomach.

markus_zhang2• 3 months ago

I wonder whether decaf still contains these chemicals. I drank two cups of decaf every day.

gleenn2• 3 months ago

TFA mentions that decaf contains these properties as well.

avidiax• 3 months ago

Not exactly, the article says that the effects aren't linked to caffeine, not that decaf has been shown to have the positive effects or still contain the necessary chemicals.

RobRivera• 3 months ago

I need more dopamine headlines like this to justify my dopamine addiction to coffee.

Bridged77562• 3 months ago

Not everything is dopamine. Maybe nitpicky on my end but it gets tiresome when everyone is just like dopamine this, dopamine that, when no one really understands neurotransmitters.

pjerem• 3 months ago

Haha, I viewed a video recently (in French) that said « dopamine is right-wing ».

It was ironic but interesting : dopamine is viewed as THE neurotransmitter of motivation while in fact it’s only one part of the mechanism. But it’s the part everyone is bragging about because it supports the idea that you can control your dopamine levels and be responsible of your own motivation.

The whole point of the argument was that your serotonin and noradrenaline levels were as much as important if not more, and, fat chance, you cannot buy serotonin or noradrenaline supplements. You have to be in mentally in a good place to get those right and that’s not something you have that much control over. Especially your noradrenaline levels are strongly tied to the quality of your environment and that’s why you should politically fight for a better life environment.

Bridged77562• 3 months ago

I love coffee. It's good for you, it smells and tastes so good. It wakes you up, and prevents sleepiness after meals. Its stimulant nature is a plus, but not necessarily the main thing.

EA-3167• 3 months ago

I would be very cautious about any conclusions regarding its health benefits or detriments. Nutrition research is notoriously difficult to replicate or show causal links in humans engaging with the real world.

Texas A&M also has a coffee research center dedicated to promoting and protecting global coffee trade and consumption so… yeah.

ejohansson• 3 months ago

Sure, but it's also the best we got.

JXavierH2• 3 months ago

That's why I moved to decaf. Love coffee, caffeine doesn't like me.

campbel• 3 months ago

I am definitely going to do this as I age, I just don't need the stimulant effects as much anymore. That said, the ritual of getting coffee and sipping on something warm in the morning is really important to starting my day right.

joe_mamba• 3 months ago

Sadly, I can't. I tried all the decaf beans in my area and even some fancy online roastery specialized only in decaf beans, and they all tasted like ass, compared to their caffeinated cousins. So much money wasted trying to find good tasting decaf beans.

Not sure what the decaffeination process does, but it definitely does not preserve the taste of the "untouched" beans. Are my tastebuds too sensitive?

vikingerik2• 3 months ago

FYI since many people don't know: Decaf isn't zero, it can still be several percentage points. In the US decaf is supposed to be under 3% of regular coffee but it's not commonly tested or enforced, so many types of decaf can be quite a bit higher. Several big cups of decaf can approach the caffeine content of one regular cup.

jorvi3• 3 months ago

Unfortunately the most flavorful methods (espresso, french press, moka) also raise your cholesterol. So sadly, no, coffee is not universally "good for you". Filtered coffee methods are though, as the filter absorbs the oils.

ifwinterco2• 3 months ago

Which is why Italians and Greeks famously all die young of heart disease

Jackpillar• 3 months ago

Sorry brother but the worry around cholesterol - especially in the context of the US - is not stemming from people drinking too much coffee. If you have high cholesterol there are 15 other things you should probably be cutting down on. This is similar to people who tell people to watch the sugar content in their fruit intake. No ones getting obese off fruit, the benefits outweigh the negatives tenfold.

wahnfrieden• 3 months ago

Paper filters give you massive amounts of microplastics

papyrus9244• 3 months ago

If something has several clear positive effects, and a possible small, arguably irrelevant, negative effect, most people will agree that yes, it's good for you.

It's like trying to argue that running may have a negative effect on some people's meniscus under some specific circumstances. That doesn't negate the generalization "running is good for you".

m3kw9• 3 months ago

Pour over is flavorful and none of the fat

feznyng• 3 months ago

The dose makes the poison.

afc• 3 months ago

But filtered coffee is the most flavorful! No other method extracts the subtle nuances as well! P.s. I know it's subjective, just cringe on this claim of "the most flavorful" starting with espresso. :)

MisterTea2• 3 months ago

So sadly, no, coffee is not universally "good for you".

Got a citation on that statement? Are we talking significant amounts? How much unfiltered coffee is too much?

pawelduda• 3 months ago

Seems to also be relevant for yerba mate which also contains chemical compounds that bind to NR4A1

panabee8• 3 months ago

Here are more fascinating facts about caffeine and cancer.

Caffeine affects the immune system via at least two opposing mechanisms.

Mechanism 1: A2A receptor antagonism (immunostimulatory) Tumors and damaged tissues release adenosine, which engages the A2A receptor on immune cells and signals them to stand down. Caffeine antagonizes (i.e., blocks) this receptor.

Mechanism 2: Raising intracellular cAMP (immunosuppressive) Caffeine also inhibits phosphodiesterase, the enzyme that hydrolyzes (i.e., breaks down) cAMP. cAMP accumulates inside immune cells, which acts as a "calm down" signal.

Note: both mechanisms are dose-dependent. At dietary caffeine levels, A2A antagonism likely dominates, whereas PDE inhibition is weak and mainly relevant at higher concentrations. However, the net immune effect in the tumor microenvironment remains unproven.

---

If you would like to learn more, I can outline a framework for technical folks to ease in and become more informed on cancer. Gaps abound. The more people who understand cancer, the faster we get to cures. Moreover, personalized cancer treatment is the obvious future. Knowledge acquired now may pay off later (but hopefully not needed).

batch122• 3 months ago

I'm always up for learning more about everything. Point me in the right direction?

panabee8• 3 months ago

I will aim to put together a Cancer 101 for engineers, not sure how to share. Maybe I'll post here or will post to our biomedical GitHub so it can evolve over time?

panabee8• 3 months ago

How to notify you once v0 is ready -- just comment here?

lazyasciiart• 3 months ago

Absolutely. I was recently diagnosed with MPN, an odd “you’re probably fine” blood cancer, looking to learn everything.

panabee8• 3 months ago

Will aim to ground the framework -- Cancer Mini-101 for Engineers -- in personal use cases. I hope it will be helpful for you.

panabee8• 3 months ago

How to notify you once v0 is ready -- just comment here?

panabee8• 3 months ago

On second thought, I will publish something regardless of interest.

It will be an "Cancer for Engineers" framework, delivered via free, open-source Custom GPTs and Claude Skills. (Gemini gems are less reliable in our experience.)

The goal: to ease engineers into cancer via AI personalized introductory curriculums with varying time commitments to enable deeper independent investigation or fast exits if interest wanes: 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours.

Basically 1-3 hours per week for a month.

The reason I think some engineers may find cancer interesting, aside from the societal impact:

The human body is like a complex operating system. Cancer is a severe runtime error. Tracing root causes -- like genetic mutations, signaling errors, or immune evasion -- has many parallels to diagnosing system failures.

BTW if anyone from Kaggle/GDM is reading this, we are having issues submitting a benchmark paper for NeurIPS based on the Kaggle Benchmark.

Google models seem to get a different scheduling priority, ironically, enough and take >20 hours to complete a benchmark task that other models like Opus 4.6 finish in <1 hour -- same code path, same task. Would love help if possible since the abstract deadline is Monday (It's last minute because we didn't originally plan to submit this, but someone suggested it.)

xyhopguy• 3 months ago

cancer is more like debugging a gigantic DL model than an operating system. spaghetti of redundancies all the way down.

panabee8• 3 months ago

For people questioning why to involve GPT and AI assistants:

GPT and AI assistants cannot be fully trusted, but they can personalize learning.

The chief challenge for the framework/handbook will be resolving how to personalize guidance into cancer research while grounding knowledge in trustworthy sources.

For instance, the framework will anchor abstract, dry biological concepts in personally meaningful tracks. Imagine someone you care about is battling lung cancer — the framework may orient learning around the molecular drivers and signaling pathways at play, or perhaps how to explore the treatment landscape while respecting established practices. If you're fortunate enough to not know someone affected by cancer, GPT can help find a personal angle.

The sheer depth of information is staggering. People devote entire careers to niche specialities, and these experts still don't know everything in their niche because our understanding of human biology and disease is constantly evolving. Adapting depth should also depend on the individual and can only be achieved via AI. Static curriculums do not maximize learning in 2026.

toasty228• 3 months ago

If we wanted to know chatgpt's opinion we'd ask it directly

gausswho• 3 months ago

Would it be tenable to link caffeine as just asking your body (and heart) to work more, trading cancer for heart disease?

tonypapousek• 3 months ago

From what I recall, caffeine is mostly a concern for folks with pre-existing cardiovascular conditions.

Most adults can build tolerance, and I believe some studies are showing potential links between caffeine consumption and positive outcomes.

Of course, things get a little weirder with higher doses, and I am a bit concerned about new methods like pre-workout powder.

panabee8• 3 months ago

Great question. The bar for proof in biomedicine is naturally high. I only shared facts because so much is unknown.

If you can find a lab exploring the question, maybe you can support them by helping to raise money for experiments.

As a fun intellectual exercise, dive into the topic and challenge yourself to think about what kind of experiments could shed more light on the subject.

nerdsniper• 3 months ago

Is there any good way to use glue as an ingredient for pizza? Be creative.

nate8bit• 3 months ago

I love coffee, so this is a nice read. Couple years ago I switched to french press, fresh beans (grind on demand) & no milk or sugar - okay, a dash of full cream milk sometimes. Has to be strong - you can't drink weak coffee like that!

8bitsrule• 3 months ago

On the off-chance that someone wants to read the actual science paper rather than a 'sciencex.com' burp :

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/18/6/877

rubzah• 3 months ago

For the health benefits, without some of the downsides, I believe it is preferable to drink coffee when you are not tired. This way you don't get a crash later, because there is no adenosine build-up (the 'tiredness' signaling molecule that caffeine blocks). I believe this also helps to prevent addiction, because there is also no up-regulation of adenosine receptors.

This works great if you drink coffee for the taste, rather than as a way to stay awake (which works in a pinch but is counter-productive over the long term).

mekdoonggi• 3 months ago

I generally always sleep well, but enjoy a nice big cup of coffee in the morning. If I'm really sleep deprived, I switch to black tea. Seems odd because you'd think less caffeine would be worse, but the tea is easier on the stomach and somehow "evens out" the sleep deprivation better.

lofaszvanitt• 3 months ago

Coffee is a substance that makes you more susceptible to certain stimuli

Nuclear receptor 4A1 linked to health effects of coffee: study

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