14 
Millions of us start the morning with a coffee and think nothing of it. But new medical research suggests that it could be helping you live longer—if you drink enough of it.
The large-scale study, which is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that men who drank six cups of coffee or more every day were 10 per cent less likely to die during the 14 years of the study. Women who drank six cups or more were 15 per cent less likely to die over that same period. The result, fairly obviously, suggests that coffee drinkers live longer.
The researchers have also shown that the effect is seen across almost all causes of death, including heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, and infections. The effect, however, seems to decline with lower consumption—and a single cup of coffee a day was found to have negligible effect.
Dr Neal Freedman, one of the researchers from the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, in Rockville in Maryland, USA, explains:
“Coffee contains more than 1000 compounds that might affect the risk of death. The most well-studied compound is caffeine, although similar associations for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee in the current study and a previous study suggest that, if the relationship between coffee consumption and mortality were causal, other compounds in coffee—for example, antioxidants, including polyphenols—might be important.”
All of which means, of course, that next time someone says you’re drinking too much coffee, you know exactly what to say. [NEJM via The Telegraph]
Image by HappyKanppy/Shutterstock
Insane Blasts of Heat Could Make Flash Memory Live Longer Than Ever
Refreshed Starbucks App Now Live for UK iTunes/Coffee Fans
The Mixtape Will Live Forever Through This Retro-riffic Coffee Table
As if I needed another reason to grab my coffee this morning!
That said, as is the case with most of these studies… 10 percent more than what exactly? Than someone that doesn’t drink coffee? That drinks beetroot juice every morning? That drinks mineral water every day? Than someone that doesn’t excercise? There are far too many variables involved! But it’ll do
Important quote from the source
Lead author Dr Neal Freedman, from the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, in Rockville in Maryland, USA, wrote: “Given the observational nature of our study, it is not possible to conclude that the inverse relationship between coffee consumption and mortality reflects cause and effect.”
Also worth noting – all test subjects were aged 50-71 at the start of the test and that participants with cancer, heart disease, and stroke were excluded. they also only noted the level of coffee consumption once at the start of the test.
I always find it’s wise to read the small print on these tests, I was checking that the research wasn’t funded by the coffee marketing board.
“Given the observational nature of our study, it is not possible to conclude that the inverse relationship between coffee consumption and mortality reflects cause and effect.”
So basically, there’s no link?
There may be, or may not. This experiment cannot say. Even if all the coffee drinkers in this study lived 100 years longer than the non coffee drinkers, there is so little rigor in the setup that they would not be able to conclude that it proved anything other than “The coffee drinkers in this survey lived 100 years longer than the non coffee drinkers”.
That’s what I thought. I assume that’s why we get a billion of these types of studies that just so happen to contradict each other every other time.
This is only if they don’t end up spilling most of it as they walk back to their chairs.
six cups? easy i do that before lunchtime (yes i am a coffee fiend)
On the subject of coffee… where’s everyone’s favourite coffee shop? Mine has to be Rough Trade East down near Brick Lane. They serve Monmouth coffee without the Monmouth queues. That said, during the week I almost always stop by Pret – the coffee’s cheap and gets the job done.