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Why Can Coffee Lovers Live Longer?
 

Coffee is a beverage that many people would like to have in the morning before they start their daily routines. International Coffee Organization (ICO) estimates that about 1.4 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day worldwide.

Being the largest consuming country of coffee in the world, United States alone is accounted for about 45 percent of the world consumption. According to the National Coffee Association in the United States, about 64 percent of adults drink coffee daily. Based on 3.2 cups per person, about 479 million cups are consumed each day.

Health experts have mixed opinions on the health effects of coffee. Some studies suggested that coffee might contribute to heart disease, lead to iron deficiency anemia in mothers and infants, and interfere with absorption of supplement iron. On the other hand, other research found that coffee could lower the risk of Type-2 diabetes, prostate cancer and even death.

A paper published on May 17, 2012 by researchers from National Cancer Institute in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ reported that men and women who drank at least 6 cups of coffee a day had a 10 and 15 percent respectively lower chance of dying during the 14-year study period than those who drank none.

Interestingly, the study indicated a higher risk of death among coffee drinkers initially. About 13 percent of men and 10 percent of women who reported not drinking any coffee died between 1995 and 2008, compared to 19 percent of men and 15 percent of women drank 6 or more cups a day.

But after researchers found that coffee drinkers were also more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol and eat lots of red meat and took into account of these factors, the results showed a different picture.

Coffee habits of 402,260 (229,119 men and 173,141 women) were reviewed. These participants, who aged between 50 and 71 and agreed to take part in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, were followed between 1995 and 2008. A total of 33,731 men and 18,784 women died during the review period. Analysis done in the study centered on healthy people, excluding those with cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The study showed that drinking 6 or more cups of coffee a day did cut mortality risk the most though not by much, and those who drank 2 to 5 cups of coffee daily also appeared to have lower risk. It should also note that the results were not affected by whether the coffee contained caffeine or not.

According to researchers, the inverse associations held for deaths due to heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections, but not for deaths due to cancer. When it came to cancer, deaths were slightly higher among male coffee drinkers.

However, the rationale behind this is unclear. It is not sure whether the lower risk of death could be due to the fact that sick people and those with chronic diseases do not tend to drink coffee.

Since the study is an observational study, it could only highlight apparent link between coffee drinking and lower risk of death. But, it could not confirm whether coffee is the cause. There might be due to other reasons. For example, it could be the act of making, serving or drinking coffee that protects people from death.

Nevertheless, researchers suspected that there must be something beneficial about coffee itself. It could be antioxidants that scientists have already discovered, or other substances that have yet been detected. After all, coffee contains more than thousand compounds that can affect health in different manners.

Certainly, the new findings might be good news for coffee lovers, especially those healthy people. Until more research is done, others are urged not to change their drinking habits and start drinking more coffee. Instead, they should check with their doctors and always use common sense.

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