ALSUntangled #70: caffeine

Jessica Hatch; Paul Barkhaus; Benjamin Barnes; Morgan Beauchamp; Michael Benatar; Tulio Bertorini; Robert Bowser; Mark Bromberg; Andrew Brown; Javier Mascias Cadavid; Gregory T Carter; Nicholas Cole; Jesse Crayle; Mazen Dimachkie; David Ennist; Eva Feldman; Timothy Fullam; Terry Heiman-Patterson; Sartaj Jhooty; Todd Levine; Xiaoyan Li; Isaac Lund; Elise Mallon; Nicholas Maragakis; Christopher McDermott; Gary Pattee; Kaitlyn Pierce; Dylan Ratner; Kim Staats; Paul Wicks; Martina Wiedau; Richard Bedlack

doi:10.1080/21678421.2023.2220742

ALSUntangled #70: caffeine

Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 2023 Jun 8:1-5. doi: 10.1080/21678421.2023.2220742. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jessica Hatch¹, Paul Barkhaus², Benjamin Barnes³, Morgan Beauchamp⁴, Michael Benatar⁵, Tulio Bertorini⁶, Robert Bowser⁷, Mark Bromberg⁸, Andrew Brown⁵, Javier Mascias Cadavid⁹, Gregory T Carter¹⁰, Nicholas Cole¹¹, Jesse Crayle¹², Mazen Dimachkie¹³, David Ennist¹⁴, Eva Feldman¹⁵, Timothy Fullam¹⁶, Terry Heiman-Patterson¹⁷, Sartaj Jhooty¹⁸, Todd Levine¹⁹, Xiaoyan Li²⁰, Isaac Lund²¹, Elise Mallon²², Nicholas Maragakis²³, Christopher McDermott²⁴, Gary Pattee²⁵, Kaitlyn Pierce²⁶, Dylan Ratner²⁷, Kim Staats²⁸, Paul Wicks²⁹, Martina Wiedau³⁰, Richard Bedlack²⁰

Affiliations

¹ Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA.
² Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
³ Department of Neurology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA.
⁴ Neurosciences Clinical Trials Unit, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁵ Department of Neurology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA.
⁶ Neurology Department, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
⁷ Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
⁸ Department of Neurology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
⁹ ALS Department, Hospital Carlos III-La Paz, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁰ Department of Rehabilitation, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University, Spokane, WA, USA.
¹¹ Motor Neurone Disease Association, Northampton, UK.
¹² Department of Neurology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
¹³ Department of Neurology, University of Kansas, Kansas City, KS, USA.
¹⁴ Origent Data Sciences, Inc, Vienna, VA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Neurology, University of Texas, San Antonio, TX, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Neurology, Temple Health, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁸ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁹ Bob Bove Neuroscience Institute, Scottsdale, AZ, USA.
²⁰ Department of Neurology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
²¹ Green Hope High School, Cary, NC, USA.
²² Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
²³ Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD, USA.
²⁴ Department of Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
²⁵ Department of Neurology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
²⁶ Department of Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
²⁷ Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.
²⁸ Staats Life Consulting, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
²⁹ Independent Consultant, Lichfield, UK, and.
³⁰ Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

PMID: 37288776
DOI: 10.1080/21678421.2023.2220742

Abstract

ALSUntangled reviews alternative and off-label treatments for people living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (PALS). Here, we review caffeine which has plausible mechanisms for slowing ALS progression. However, pre-clinical studies are contradictory, and a large case series showed no relationship between caffeine intake and ALS progression rate. While low doses of caffeine are safe and inexpensive, higher doses can cause serious side effects. At this time, we cannot endorse caffeine as a treatment to slow ALS progression.

Keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); adenosine; caffeine; coffee; tea.