Milan Nagy, Pavel Mučaji
This review describes recent knowledge about mechanisms of action of caffeine in humans and summarizes results of coffee or tea drinking, or chocolate consumption to the ischemic stroke (IS) risk. Some results heterogeneity is caused by the caffeine content variability and the presence of other biologically active constituents; current knowledge confirms preventive action of at least one cup of coffee or tea, alternatively a chocolate consumption. This effect is not caused exclusively by caffeine intake, but also by other, mainly antioxidative active food components. The occurence of cerebral infarction and spontaneous subarachnoidal hemorrhage depends inversely, opposite to intracerebral one, on coffee or tea drinking, which can be only a supplemental approach for the IS occurence decrease.