Coffee May Extend Your Life

A recent study conducted by several Spanish and American scientists reveals that drinking two to three cups of coffee a day does not increase risk of death. In fact, drinking both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee may be linked with a slightly reduced risk of death due to heart disease.

The study which was published in the June issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine was conducted by a team led by Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia with the help of the US National Institutes of Health.

"Coffee consumption has been linked to various beneficial and detrimental health effects, but data on its relation with death were lacking," Dr. Lopez-Garcia said. "The possibility of a modest benefit of coffee consumption on heart disease, cancer, and other causes of death needs to be further investigated."

The study involved 84,214 women and 41,736 men, all of which are asked to fill up a questionaire every two to four years that included questions about their coffee consumption, other dietary habits, smoking status and their health. Lopez-Garcia and colleagues then looked at how different kinds of coffee drinking patterns correlated with frequency of death from any cause, from death due to heart disease, and from death due to cancer.

These data were then analyzed, showing the following results:

• Women who drank 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 25 per cent lower risk of death from heart disease over the follow up period (84,214 women from 1980 to 2004), compared with women who did not drink coffee.
• Women who drank 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee a day also had an 18 per cent lower risk of death from causes not related to cancer or heart disease, over the follow up period compared to women who did not drink coffee.
• Men who drank 2 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee a day showed no higher or lower risk of death during the follow up period, 41,736 men from 1986 to 2004) compared with men who did not drink coffee.
• During the follow up, 2,368 of the women died from heart disease, 5,011 from cancer, and 3,716 from other causes.
• 2,049 of the men died from heart disease, 2,491 from cancer, and 2,348 from other causes.
• Overall, taking into account other risk factors such as body size, smoking, diet, and some specific diseases, people who drank more coffee were less likely to die during the follow up period.
• The main reason for this was the lower risk of heart disease among the coffee drinkers.
• There was no link between coffee drinking and death due to cancer.
• In the main, there appeared to be no difference in the link to death rates between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, they both appeared to have the same link with lower death rates compared with people who did not drink any coffee at all.
• However, drinking decaffeinated coffee was linked to a small reduction in deaths from all causes and cardiovascular (CVD) diseases.

In conclusion, the study showed that regular coffee consumption may not be associated with an increased mortality rate. They also added that the positive benefits of coffee consumption on all-cause and mortality needs to be further investigated.