Do you wake up every morning to a piping hot mug of Java? Does coffee fill your soul and helps you get through the day? Chances are that your coffee drinking habit might decrease the risk of early death, a new study has revealed.
People who drink lots of coffee - almost six to seven cups a day - are 16 percent less likely to die from any disease than those who never have a cup of coffee.
The researchers from National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health hope that their findings would provide further reassurance that coffee can be part of a healthy diet. Previous studies have linked drinking coffee can improve liver function, reduce inflammation and boost the immune system.
Study
The team analysed data of as many as 500,000 people who took part in a large, long-running British study. The participants were between the ages of 38 and73 and the data was from the year 2006 to 2016.
The findings showed over 10 years of follow-up, more than 14,000 people died. But those who drank the most coffee were less likely to die.
People who drank eight or more cups a day had 14 percent lower risk of death and it grew to 16 percent among those who had six to seven cups a day.
The effect was also seen among moderate to light coffee drinkers but considerably to a lesser degree.
People who had two to five cups a day had 12 percent reduced death rate while those who had only one cup a day had eight percent lower risk of dying.
And it is just not the caffeine. It doesn't matter if your coffee is instant or decaf or caffeinated, the researchers said.
Lead researcher Dr. Erikka Loftfield, a cancer epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland said, "This study may provide reassurance to coffee drinkers."
However, Loftfield cautioned that because this was an observational study, it cannot prove that only drinking coffee caused people to live longer.
It didn't matter whether the person was someone who metabolised caffeine slowly or quickly to get the benefit.
"It's the non-caffeine components that might be responsible for the association," she said.
According to FDA, Americans consume 400 mg of caffeine or four cups of coffee a day.
Coffee contains a number of compounds like caffeine, diterpenes, potassium, folic acid, and antioxidants which the scientists believe have a protective impact and interact with the body, Loftfield explained.
She also added, for non-coffee drinkers, the modest benefits aren't a reason to start.
She said, "Coffee drinking was inversely associated with mortality, including among those drinking eight or more cups per day. These findings suggest the importance of non-caffeine constituents in the coffee-mortality association and provide further reassurance that coffee drinking can be a part of a healthy diet."
Dr. Loftfield added, "If somebody enjoys drinking coffee, they may continue to enjoy it based on these findings. But if they don't drink coffee, these findings don't say to start drinking it."
