Coffee in Role Reversal, May Actually Prolong Life

As published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a new study by researchers suggest how drinking large amount of coffee may reduce the risk of heart disease and also help increase a person’s lifespan. Coffee is far more beneficial to women and can actually go, contrary to popular belief, a long way in offering protecting from fatal heart attacks and stroke, the report added.

The study, conducted by researchers from Harvard University’s Harvard School of Public Health, analyzed data gathered from 84,214 women who participated in Harvard’s Nurses Health Study and 41,736 men who were part of the health Professionals Follow-Up Study, covering the period between 1986 and 2004.

Researchers found, during the course of 18 years of follow up for men and 24 years for men, that people who drank more coffee were less likely to die of serious ailments like heart disease or cancer.

According to the study, the chances of dying because of heart disease was significantly lower in women drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee (25%) than in women were abstainers or ‘non-consumers’. Women drinking caffeinated coffee also had an 18% lower risk of death by diseases other than heart disease and cancer than non-consumers.

The numbers were even better for women who drank more coffee, four to five cups a day. For these women, the reduction in chances of death due to heart ailments was a high 34 percent.

In men, the risk of death remained the same for both caffeinated coffee drinkers, who drank two to three cups of coffee a day, as well as non-drinkers. The study also found there was no link between coffee and cancer in both men as well as women.

However, the overall death rates remained the same for both caffeinated coffee drinkers as well as decaffeinated coffee drinkers. What this implies is that there is some other factor, other than coffee, that is the common factor causing death among coffee drinkers.

Speaking about the findings, Esther Lopez-Garcia, the lead author of the study and a member of the department of preventive medicine and public health at Madrid’s Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, said, “Previous studies had been inconsistent. Some of them found that coffee increased the risk of total death and others found just the opposite.”

Lopez Garcia also said coffee drinkers now need not be worried about coffee consumption leading to a rise in the risk of death. She however cautioned that it was too early for people to start consuming more coffee on the basis of this study.

Over the study period, it was found that there were about 6,888 deaths among men, and 11,095 deaths among women. The researchers considered a number of risk factors, including weight, diet, health status, and smoking status, to finally conclude that the increase in the deaths was not related to drinking of coffee.