Coffee is one of the most frequently consumed beverages worldwide. It’s “our get out of bed and get going” alarm and it’s probably one of the best methods to keep us effective and alive on those gloomy and depressing days.
And it seems that science agrees on this too. So, here’s another reason to start your day with a warm cup of heaven.
Consuming this energy booster more often might eventually help you lead a longer life, studies show.
According to a recent study which surveyed more than 520.000 individuals from 10 European countries, drinking more coffee could significantly increase a person’s lifespan. It was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine and it was considered as the largest study to date about the correlation between coffee and mortality.
A second study was conducted on the same matter, but this time was focused on the nonwhite populations. After the finished survey of over 85,000 African-Americans, Native Americans, Hawaiians, Japanese-Americans, Latinos, the researchers found out that consuming more coffee increases a person’s lifespan across various races as well.
Researchers wanted to see if there would be any potential change in the effect that coffee had on people’s health, by examining the different habits and distinct ways of consuming this natural power booster.
Participants answered questionnaires about diet, lifestyle, and family and personal medical history.They reported their coffee drinking habits when they entered the study and updated them about every five years, checking one of nine boxes that ranged from “never or hardly ever” to “4 or more cups daily.”
They also reported their preference in caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. The average follow-up period was 16 years.Over the course of the study, 58,397 participants — about 31 percent — died. Cardiovascular disease (36 percent) and cancer (31 percent) were the leading killers.
People who drank a cup of coffee on a daily basis were 12% less likely to die during the study period in comparison to those who didn’t drink coffee. And this correlation was even much stronger for the people who drank two or even three cups a day since the chance of death here was reduced to 18%.
“Given these very diverse populations, all these people have different lifestyles. They have very different dietary habits and different susceptibilities — and we still find similar patterns,” said V. Wendy Setiawan, senior author of the study and an associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
“The fact that we saw the same relationships in different countries is kind of the implication that it’s something about coffee rather than its something about the way that coffee is prepared or the way it’s drunk,”,” stated Marc Gunter, Reader in cancer epidemiology and prevention at Imperial College’s School of Public Health in the UK, who co-authored the European study.
This study showed that there is indeed a stronger biological possibility for the relationship between coffee and longevity and found that mortality was inversely related to coffee consumption for heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease.
“Moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle,” Setiawan explained. “This study and the previous studies suggest that for a majority of people, there’s no long-term harm from drinking coffee.”
Furthermore, it’s important to be aware all the other biological benefits as well as warnings when it comes to consuming coffee.
Studies throughout the years have shown that certain compounds in coffee have neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties which can help increase our vitality by reducing the risk for illnesses like Parkinson’s disease.
In the European study, the people who drank more coffee had also lower levels of inflammation, healthier lipid profiles, and better glucose control compared with those who didn’t.
Although it’s still not very clear which particular compound provided those health benefits, Gunter stated he would be interested in taking this further and exploring it thoroughly.
However, I think that if consuming coffee makes you happier, you should definitely go for it. But if you’re not much of a coffee drinker, you should really go on with your life drinking tea or water without being concerned. One thing is for sure – consuming coffee in moderate and normal quantities can’t harm our health.
“We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association,” Setiawan said. “If you like to drink coffee, drink up! If you’re not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start.”
Image Copyright: dedivan1923 / 123RF Stock Photo
