Caffeine protects the gastric mucosa from NSAIDs and alcohol

The alcohol case is clear and it is well known that it damages the mucosa. The drug used to induce damage was ibuprofen, but I don't see why the results and conclusions would not translate to aspirin as well, thus making an even stronger case for combining aspirin with caffeine. Effective human dose 100mg-600mg per day.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10467957

"...Caffeine inhibited the development of HCl-ethanol-induced gastric lesions with and without indomethacin pretreatment. Caffeine decreased ibuprofen-induced gastric myeloperoxidase activity in a dose-dependent manner, with an ED50 of 9.1 mg kg(-1). These findings indicate that caffeine, at least in rats, may inhibit the development of acute gastric mucosal injury. The mechanisms underlying the protective actions of caffeine are unclear, but may be related in part to an increase in gastric mucosal blood flow and suppression of neutrophil activation."

Many people on the forum are trying to take caffeine but claim that it irritates their stomach or colon. The mainstream opinion is that caffeine is a gastric irritant that may potentiate injury to the stomach by things like aspirin, other NSAID or alcohol.
Well, according to this study not only is caffeine not an irritant but it almost completely prevents the injury (and heals existing ones) caused by various doses of aspirin, ibuprofen, alcohol, etc. The most effective dosage used is equivalent to a human dosage of about 1,200mg. That's high, but a dosage half as large (400mg-600mg) worked almost as well and virtually reversed the damage to the gastric mucosa by aspirin and ibuprofen, but was not completely preventive for injuries caused by alcohol. For more information look at the attached study and specifically Table 2, where is shows protection against aspirin.
In summary, caffeine is NOT a gastric irritant and also prevents gastric damage by a number of known strong irritants like aspirin and alcohol.
So, people taking aspirin (or drinking) would do well to combine with caffeine for a double punch on metabolism and gastric health.

"...The irritant effects of caffeine on the gastric mucosa (Cohen & Booth 1975; Seegers et al 1979; Tariq et al 1985) and the clinically inducing damage of NSAIDs in the gastrointestinal mucosa of experimental animals (Beck et al 1990; Wagner et al 1995) and man (Scarpignato 1995) has been widely reported. It has therefore been suggested that concomitant administration of NSAIDs and caffeine is associated with a higher risk of development of gastric ulcer than administration of NSAIDs alone. However, the results of this study show that caffeine prevented the formation of ibuprofen-induced gastric lesions in a dose-dependent manner; caffeine also prevented indomethacin- or aspirin-induced gastric lesions. These results demonstrate that caffeine inhibits the development of gastric mucosal injury. We examined the effect of caffeine on HCl± ethanol induced gastric mucosal injury, which is known to be unrelated to acid output and is frequently used for the screening of gastric protective drugs (Mizui & Doteuchi 1983). Caffeine inhibited the development of such lesions in a dose-dependent manner. Therefore, we investigated the effect of caffeine as a mild irritant (such as 20%ethanol, 0
10± 0
35MHCl) (Robert et al 1983) to the gastric mucosa. When endogenous prostaglandin synthesis was blocked by indomethacin pretreatment, the administration of caffeine inhibited HCl±ethanol-induced gastric lesions, but injury induced by 20% ethanol, a mild irritant, was not inhibited. Oral and intraperitoneal administration of caffeine inhibited the development of gastricmucosal lesions. These results suggest that caffeine has gastric protective activity and does not act as a mild irritant to the gastric mucosa."

I think there's actually some research that shows salicylic acid actually protects from ethanol challenge through a reactive increase by the stomach in mucus production.

Such_Saturation said:

I think there's actually some research that shows salicylic acid actually protects from ethanol challenge through a reactive increase by the stomach in mucus production.

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Yes, I posted a study on this several months ago. However, it looks like the protection vs harm of aspirin seem to be dose related and also how aspirin was administered. Acute high doses actually may damage the mucosa and this study looked at such administration of aspirin. Chronic lower doses like Ray's regimen are probably protective for the stomach.

Is glycine related to the injury or only to other side effects?

Such_Saturation said:

Is glycine related to the injury or only to other side effects?

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I think it is, the study postulated that the injury by aspirin is due to depletion of glycine. This would explain why in Russia they sell aspirin combined with an equal amount of glycine for people with "sensitive" stomachs.

haidut said:

Such_Saturation said:

Is glycine related to the injury or only to other side effects?

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I think it is, the study postulated that the injury by aspirin is due to depletion of glycine. This would explain why in Russia they sell aspirin combined with an equal amount of glycine for people with "sensitive" stomachs.

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I think I will try it - I've been having caffeine and vitamin K with the aspirin (one gram per sitting) but breakfast is still like a "bull in a china shop".

haidut said:

Chronic lower doses like Ray's regimen are probably protective for the stomach.

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Peat recommends what dosage?

When peoplerefer to coffee being an irritant, is it the caffeine they are talking about? Or could it be some other components of coffee that iritate some people's stomach, even while the caffeine component is protective?

paymanz1 said:

haidut said:

Chronic lower doses like Ray's regimen are probably protective for the stomach.

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Peat recommends what dosage?

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I think he said something along the lines "some days I take 500mg and others just a little". He also said that aspirin every other day in doses of about 650mg (2 pills) is enough for cancer protection. So, on average he probably takes about a grain a day (325mg). Of course, for people with an actual condition larger doses may be warranted.

tara said:

When peoplerefer to coffee being an irritant, is it the caffeine they are talking about? Or could it be some other components of coffee that iritate some people's stomach, even while the caffeine component is protective?

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I think in the study I attached, there are some references at the beginning where they talk about caffeine being an irritant. I have not looked at them so I don't know if they looked at caffeine or coffee.