Drink coffee – live a longer life

Researchers in China have conducted a series of experiments to determine how much benefit humans get from drinking coffee. Their results published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine are encouraging as they seem to indicate that drinking coffee can stave off death for a little bit longer.  

the study found that people who drank a 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day, whether plain black or sweetened with a small amount of sugar, were 29%-31% less likely to die from any cause during the seven-year study period.

Data for the study was culled from the UK Biobank, a long-term database with health records of more than half a million participants that has provided a wealth of information used in recent coffee-related health research.

“They found that drinking moderate levels of coffee regularly was associated with a lower risk of dying from any cause, dying from cancer, and dying from heart disease,” Annals of Internal Medicine Deputy Editor Christina Wee wrote in a description of the research. “The lower risk of dying associated with moderate levels of coffee drinking was true regardless of whether you drank decaffeinated coffee, instant coffee, or ground coffee.”

Beyond plain black and sugar-added coffee, the research also explored the association between all-cause mortality in coffee drinkers and the use of artificial sweeteners, finding inconclusive results.