SDC Rewards Member
Upgrade yours now
A
.png){kind=icon}
Drinking Coffee Daily Could Lead to a Longer Life: Study Suggests
A recent study that followed and monitored the coffee drinking habits of 171,000 people from the United Kingdom over the course of seven years has revealed a link between regular caffeine consumption and a reduced risk of early death.
As a baseline, the study’s participants were on average 56 years of age, free of cancer or heart disease at the beginning of the study, and registered on the UK Biobank.
Their daily intake of coffee was recorded at the beginning of the study.
More than 3,000 deaths were recorded over the study period, with more than half being cancer-related deaths, while another 600 died from cardiovascular diseases.
The study revealed that regular coffee drinkers were one-third less likely to die compared to those who abstained.
It turns out that any coffee can be good for you! Credit: Shutterstock
The study also showed that no matter the amount of sugar found in the participants’ coffee, the results were all the same: there was a correlation between regular consumption of sweetened and unsweetened coffee with living a longer life.
It is worth noting that there have been plenty of observational studies before that associated caffeine consumption with a reduced risk of death, but none have made the distinction between regular coffee and coffee sweetened with sugars, syrups, or even artificial sweeteners.
In their article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the researchers concluded that ‘moderate consumption of unsweetened and sugar-sweetened coffee was associated with lower risk of death.’
An important clarification to note is that although the study may have shown a link between caffeine consumption and a lower risk of early death, the study was only observational.
This means caffeine consumption isn’t necessarily directly responsible for the lower risk of death among the study’s participants.
Another limitation of the study was the initial record of caffeine consumption which fails to account for any possible changes in coffee intake among participants over the course of the study.
The study also made use of a sample that was majority white, making the ethnicities of the participants almost entirely homogeneous.
Regular consumption of coffee has been proven by past studies to have a variety of health benefits such as improved endurance and strength, and lower risks of developing diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and even depression.
Even though the study, along with past research, links regular coffee consumption with plenty of health benefits, coffee alone won’t lead to a healthy life.
One still has to live a proper life with a balanced diet and regular exercise to ensure one’s overall wellbeing.
If you are planning any significant lifestyle changes, we recommend speaking to your GP to ensure it’s right for you.
So what are your thoughts? At this rate, we at the SDC HQ may just live forever!
