According to the American Diabetic Association millions of Americans suffer from Type II diabetes. This is a serious disease and is the most common form of diabetes. Over time those affected by the disease can suffer from severe complications. These include heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease and nervous system complications. For those who suffer from diabetes, have pre-diabetes or are at risk for the disease research now show that there may be benefits from drinking coffee and tea.

Researchers, for some time, have thought that a link existed between coffee and tea and diabetes risk, but no one had looked at the data to find the connection. Recently Dr. Rachel Huxley and a team of her colleagues from the George Institute for International Health in Sydney set out to see what they could find. They looked at data from 18 different studies accumulated over a 40 plus year time period. What they found offers hope for prevention and treatment of type II diabetes.

After reviewing the studies they reported that those individuals who drank an average of three to four cups of coffee or tea each day lowered their type II diabetes risk by 25% over those individuals who consumed two cups or fewer each day. Diabetes risk for individuals was lowered by about 7% for each cup consumed. The research also showed that there was no bearing on gender or geographical location.

Out of the 18 studies that Huxley and her colleagues looked at, six of them had data from individuals who consumed decaf coffee. In those particular studies, decaf also lowered the risk. Those that consumed three to four cups of decaf per day lowered their risk for type II diabetes by 30%.

Tea consumption statistics were available in seven of the studies. Again consumption of three to four cups of tea a day also lowered diabetes risk. The drop was slightly lower with tea drinkers coming in right around 20%

Researchers conclude that this information could be substantial for those who suffer from type II diabetes and those at risk of developing the disease. They do caution however that further research is needed to determine what component of these beverages is responsible for lowering the risk. Researchers hope that these results will help millions of people in the future to prevent and fight this disease.