Based on an analysis of just under half a million records in the UK Biobank, people who drink two to three cups of coffee each day tend to live longer and exhibit less cardiovascular disease compared with those who abstain from the beverage.
While the research doesn’t claim drinking more coffee adds years to your life, it’s nevertheless an intriguing association that scientists are keen to investigate further. It’s also important to weigh the findings against previous studies linking brain shrinkage and an increased risk of dementia with a daily habit of six or more cups of coffee.
“In this large, observational study, ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee were associated with equivalent reductions in the incidence of cardiovascular disease and death from cardiovascular disease or any cause,” says electrophysiologist Peter Kistler, from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Australia.
“The results suggest that mild to moderate intake of ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle.”
The UK Biobank is a large-scale database containing records on individuals’ genetics, health, and lifestyle. In this study, the sample provided an average of 12 and a half years’ worth of health and dietary information on 449,563 people with a median age of 58.
The participants were grouped according to their daily coffee consumption, and what type of coffee they usually drank – with just over 100,000 people reporting that they didn’t drink coffee at all. As part of the analysis, the researchers factored in the effects of age, sex, ethnicity, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, smoking status, and tea and alcohol consumption.
From there, Kistler and colleagues could compute differences in heart health outcomes and death from any cause for all coffee drinkers over the study time period, compared to those who didn’t drink coffee.
Drinking instant, ground and even decaffeinated coffee were all associated with a lower likelihood of death. Those who drank two or three cups of coffee a day had better odds of living longer than those who didn’t drink any.