Do Coffee Drinkers Live Longer?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

Overall, the evidence suggests that coffee consumption is associated with a lower risk of mortality and may contribute to better physical functioning and longer telomeres, which are indicators of slower aging. However, its impact on extreme longevity is less clear. The benefits of coffee are observed across different types of coffee and are consistent even when accounting for genetic differences in caffeine metabolism. While coffee appears to be a beneficial component of a healthy lifestyle, it is important to consider other lifestyle factors that also contribute to longevity.

The relationship between coffee consumption and longevity has been a topic of interest in numerous studies. Researchers have investigated whether coffee drinkers tend to live longer and the potential mechanisms behind this association. This synthesis aims to present the key findings from various research papers on this topic.

Key Insights

• Inverse Association with Mortality:
  • Multiple studies have found that higher coffee consumption is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality. This includes reductions in deaths from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, and infections, but not cancer2 8 10.
  • The benefits were observed across different types of coffee (instant, ground, decaffeinated) and were consistent regardless of genetic variations in caffeine metabolism10.
• Cardiovascular Benefits:
  • Coffee consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Studies show that drinking more than one cup per day can significantly lower the risk of CVD mortality, although the benefits may attenuate over time1 2 3.
• Telomere Length and Aging:
  • Higher coffee consumption is associated with longer leukocyte telomere length, a biomarker of aging. This suggests that coffee may have protective effects against cellular aging3.
• Physical Functioning in Aging:
  • Higher coffee consumption is strongly associated with better physical functioning outcomes in older adults, potentially countering physical decline and conditions like sarcopenia and frailty7.
• No Significant Difference in Extreme Longevity:
  • Some studies did not find a significant difference in coffee consumption between those who reached extreme old age (90 years or older) and those who did not. This suggests that while coffee may contribute to overall health, it may not be a decisive factor for extreme longevity1 2.
• Quality of Life:
  • Coffee consumption does not have an adverse effect on health-related quality of life (HRQL). In some cases, it is associated with slightly better mental health scores among women6.
• Potential Confounders:
  • The relationship between coffee consumption and longevity is complex and may be influenced by other lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet, and physical activity. Proper adjustments for these confounders are necessary to accurately assess the impact of coffee on longevity1 2 8.

 

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Do coffee drinkers live longer?

Joanna Mikolajczyk-Stecyna has answered Likely

An expert from Poznan University of Life Sciences in Nutrition, Genetics

The huge review published in BMJ in 2018 consists of 201 meta-analyses of observational research with 67 unique health outcomes and 17 meta-analyses of interventional research with nine unique outcomes showed that coffee consumption was more often associated with benefit than harm for a range of health outcomes. However, we have to remeber that some of us are (so called) “fast” and the other “slow” caffeine metabolizer and therefore drinking coffee, which apart from hundreds of biologically active compounds, includes also caffeine, affect us in different way. Habitual coffee consumption seems to be beneficial for adult, but not for childern and adlolescents. Because drinkig coffee is associated associated with lower risks for cardiovascular diseases, main reason for death, it can be linked to longevity.

 

Do coffee drinkers live longer?

Robin Poole has answered Likely

An expert from University of Southampton in Coffee

Drinking moderate amounts of coffee – about three or four cups a day – is more likely to benefit our health than harm it, our research shows. This is important to know because around the world over two billion cups of coffee are consumed every day.

Earlier studies have suggested beneficial links between coffee drinking and liver disease. Our research group has an interest in liver conditions. As such, we had previously conducted two meta-analyses, one looking for links between coffee drinking and cirrhosis and another at coffee drinking and cancer of the liver. We found that there was a lower risk of both conditions in people who drank more coffee.

Most of the evidence, however, is from observational studies, which can only find probable associations but can’t prove cause and effect. To overcome these limitations, we plan to conduct a randomised controlled trial in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to see if coffee works as a treatment to reduce the risk of the disease progressing.

But before we can start giving coffee to patients, we needed to know whether coffee drinking had any recognised harms, so we decided to conduct an umbrella review to capture as much important information about coffee drinking and health as we could. Umbrella reviews combine previous meta-analyses and give a high level summary of research findings.

Many benefits

Overall, our umbrella analysis showed that drinking coffee is more often linked with benefits than harms. For some conditions, the largest benefit appeared to be associated with drinking three to four cups of coffee each day. This included lower risk of death from any causes, or getting heart disease. Drinking coffee beyond these amounts was not associated with harm, but the benefits were less pronounced.

Drinking coffee was also associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, gallstones, renal stones and gout. We also found that it was associated with a lower risk of getting some types of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, depression and Alzheimer’s disease. But liver diseases stood out as having the greatest benefit compared with other conditions.

Reassuringly, harms were not apparent apart from during pregnancy when coffee drinking was linked to low birth weight, premature birth (in the first six months of pregnancy) and miscarriage. This is not new knowledge, and there are guidelines for limiting caffeine intake in pregnancy. We also found a small increase in risk of fracture in women, but there is some discrepancy in the evidence and further investigation is needed.

Careful how you consume it

Findings of our umbrella review should be interpreted with caution. Evidence in the review came mainly from observational research, so we can’t extrapolate our findings to suggest people start drinking coffee or increasing their intake in attempts to become healthier. What we can say is that people who already enjoy moderate amounts of coffee as part of their diet are most probably getting health benefits from it, rather than harm.

Our research is about coffee. It’s not about sugar, syrups, biscuits, cakes and pastries. Standard health messages still apply to those types of food. In other words, if you already drink coffee, enjoy it, but try to make it as healthy as possible.

This is republished from The Conversation under a creative commons license. Read the original article here.

 

Do coffee drinkers live longer?

Marzieh Moeenfard has answered Uncertain

An expert from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Food Science, Analytical Chemistry

I believe this question is not scientifically correct. In this case, the type of coffee brew (espresso, french press, filter coffee, boiled/Turkish coffee , etc) as well as the amount cup and cup size per day should be considered. Consumers’ health, their sensitivity to compounds such as caffeine, age, sex, etc. are also involved. coffee is a very complex brew containing various compound with positive and negative effect (such as acrylamide) on human health. According to O’Keefe et al. 2018 – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2018.02.002) “Habitual intake of 3 to 4 cups of coffee appears to be safe and is associated with the most robust beneficial effects”. Although drinking moderate amounts levels of coffee is good for health, more comprehensive research is needed to estimate the role of coffee on longevity. In general if you drink moderate cups of coffee (depending on type of coffee brew), its health benefits is more that its adverse effect, so enjoy it.

 

Do coffee drinkers live longer?

Ian Musgrave has answered Uncertain

An expert from University of Adelaide in Pharmacology, Toxicology

Like many previous studies, the study found people who drank coffee had a lower risk of dying of any cause – and specifically, of dying from heart disease and cancer – over the course of the study.

But this study only shows a correlation between drinking coffee and a lower risk of early death. It doesn’t show coffee was the cause of the lower risk.

The research is important, however, because it overturns the theory that people who drink six or more cups of coffee a day are at greater risk of early death. This issue had not been effectively addressed in previous studies.

How was the research conducted?

This was a prospective trial, which tracked almost half a million British residents over ten years as part of the UK Biobank study.

In a prospective trial, subjects are recruited, then their health and illness are followed over time. We have a good idea of how healthy they were to start off with. We also have a good idea of other factors that could impact their health from the start, rather than trying to reconstruct them after they have developed a disease.

In a baseline questionnaire, subjects gave detailed responses to coffee consumption (how much, how often, what types of coffee and whether it was caffeinated or decaffeinated), as well as other factors such as alcohol, tea, race, education, physical activity, body mass index (BMI) and smoking (including intensity, type of tobacco and time since quitting).

The volunteers were all genotyped to determine their genetic variations of major caffeine metabolising enzymes.

The participants’ health status was monitored during the study and, if they died, their cause of death was determined by the National Health Service using internationally recognised criteria.

What did they find?

After taking into account factors such as smoking and alcohol intake, the researchers found fewer coffee drinkers died than those who didn’t drink coffee over the ten-year study period.

Depending on the amount consumed, coffee drinkers were around 5-10% less likely to die from heart disease, cancer and other causes during the study period than non-coffee drinkers.

Compared to non-coffee drinkers, those who consumed one cup of coffee a day had an 8% lower risk of premature death; this increased to a 16% lower risk for those who drank six cups a day. People who drank up to eight cups of coffee a day were 14% less likely to die prematurely than non-coffee drinkers.

This pattern was seen for all types of coffee, including instant and decaffeinated coffee.

The researchers found drinking six or more cups of coffee a day was not associated with an increased risk of death. While some previous studies had hinted at this (see here and here) the relationship was still uncertain. The current study is the most extensive exploration of high coffee intake to date.

They also found people who had a history of cancer, diabetes, heart attack or stroke were not at a higher risk of death from drinking a moderate amount of coffee.

Finally, and most importantly, the researchers found people who were less able to break down caffeine were not at higher risk of death.

Previously, researchers had thought people who broke down caffeine more slowly would have higher risks of heart disease because they had higher levels of caffeine in the blood than the average person. This turns out not to be so.

What does it all mean?

As with the previous studies, this is a correlation study. So, while there was an association between coffee consumption and a lower risk of death, we still can’t say coffee was the cause of the lower risk of death.

There may be some other environmental variable that was not accounted for. Coffee consumption may entail more walking, for instance, which was not captured in the lifestyle questionnaires.

But it is still plausible coffee causes the lowered death risk. While coffee is most notable for its caffeine content, it also contains a host of antioxidants such a caffeic acid and cholorogenic acid, which might have health benefits.

This may be why the risk of death in the JAMA study was also lower for those who drank decaffeinated coffee. Decaf has been similarly effective in reducing the risk of heart disease in other studies.

Despite a recent US court ruling coffee companies in California must carry cancer warning labels, this study supports previous research that coffee consumption is protective against cancer, particularly of the colon and liver.

Coffee consumption is also thought to be protective against type two diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. However, the effect of coffee consumption is modest, and should not replace other factors such as diet and exercise.

On the other hand, women who drink coffee may have an increased fracture risk, and may wish to reduce coffee consumption during pregnancy.

The study might not be reason enough to start drinking coffee, but if you love the drink, you needn’t worry about having another cup.

I have adapted this answer from my original article in The Conversation