London, Jun 12 (IANS): Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of developing Parkinson's Disease (PD), reveals a new study.

Researchers have observed that regularly drinking coffee can cut the risk of developing the disease by 25 percent. However, the risk fell to 14 percent among female coffee drinkers.

"This study confirms an inverse association between caffeine intake and the risk of PD, which can hardly be explained by bias or uncontrolled confounding," telegraph.co.uk quoted researchers from the University of Porto, in Portugal, as saying.

Keiran Breen, director of research and development at the charity Parkinson’s UK, said: "There have been a number of scientific papers about caffeine and Parkinson’s in recent years.

"It is a very difficult one to call. There are a number of different aspects involved in anything related to lifestyle. I have heard it argued that personality is one reason why people become coffee drinkers, or alcohol drinkers, say, and we know that personality can play a role in whether people will develop Alzheimer’s.

"There are more studies ongoing into the connection and in what direction it might work. I would not say that people should run out now and start drinking coffee so that they don’t develop Parkinson’s. But it is possible that this is giving us a hint and that coffee or a drug like caffeine could have some kind of protective property," Breen added.

The findings were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.