Coffee and Longevity

We are living longer, and this may be the most important trend we’ve ever experienced. It’s driven by — and it affects — everything from health to housing, money to technology, lifestyle to social policy.

When I was working, I would drink between 8 and 10 cups of coffee a day. Now that I am retired, I drink occasionally two or three cups a day. I like coffee as do many people. Coffee may extend our longevity, as cited in the following research:

A British study of 500,000 people, over a 10-year period, found that habitual coffee drinkers were less likely to die — of any cause than non-coffee drinkers in this very large study, coffee drinking was associated inversely with all-cause mortality, including in those drinking at least 8 cups per day, in both slow and fast metabolizers of caffeine, and in consumers of ground, instant, and decaffeinated coffee. The results are based on observational data and should be interpreted with caution. These results provide further evidence that coffee drinking can be part of a healthy diet and may provide reassurance to those who drink coffee and enjoy it.

A Spanish study which examined the association between coffee consumption and the risk of mortality in a middle-aged Mediterranean cohort of 20,000 people found that people over the age of 45 had a 30 percent lower risk of death for every two additional cups of coffee they drank each day.During the ten-year period, 337 participants died. The researchers found that participants who consumed at least four cups of coffee per day had a 64% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who never or almost never consumed coffee. There was a 22% lower risk of all-cause mortality for every two additional cups of coffee per day.The researchers examined whether sex, age or adherence to the Mediterranean diet had any influence on the association between baseline coffee consumption and mortality. They observed a significant interaction between coffee consumption and age. The association was not significant among younger participants.

The Harvard School of Public Health followed 200,000 doctors and nurses over a 30-year period and linked coffee consumption to lower risk of death from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neurological diseases and even suicide. How much lower is the risk? Drinking between three and five cups dropped the risk by 15 percent. They assessed coffee drinking using validated food questionnaires every four years over about 30 years. During the study period, 19,524 women and 12,432 men died from a range of causes.In the whole study population, moderate coffee consumption was associated with a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, and suicide. Coffee consumption was not associated with cancer deaths. The analyses took into consideration potential confounding factors such as smoking, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and other dietary factors.“This study provides further evidence that moderate consumption of coffee may confer health benefits to reduce premature death because of several diseases,” said senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology. “These data support the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Report that concluded that ‘moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy dietary pattern.”

Stanford University School of Medicine scientists has unearthed a connection between advancing age, systemic inflammation, cardiovascular disease and caffeine consumption.Extensive analysis of blood samples, survey data and medical and family histories gathered from over 100 human participants in a multiyear study has revealed a fundamental inflammatory mechanism associated with human aging and the chronic diseases that come with it.The study implicates this inflammatory process as a driver of cardiovascular disease and increased rates of mortality overall. Metabolites, or breakdown products, of nucleic acids — the molecules that serve as building blocks for our genes — circulating in the blood can trigger this inflammatory process, the study found.

Then there was a small study at Stanford University, involving only 100 coffee drinkers but extending over several years. The study looked at the relationship between coffee drinking and the buildup of inflammation, which is a major feature of aging and contributes to so many diseases and chronic conditions. Researchers theorized that the high caffeine content in coffee acted to counteract the chemical reactions that caused inflammation.

Another possible cellular-level action was discovered in a study at the Krembil Brain Institute at the University of Toronto, which showed that coffee consumption “seems to have some correlation to a decreased risk,” of both Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease: “The secret here seems to be connected to a kind of chemical called phenylindole’s, which are created during the roasting process. These chemicals may help stop the buildup of two toxic proteins in the brain, called tau and beta-amyloid, which have been linked to both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”

Okay, bottom line: How much coffee is enough? How much is too much?

Yet another study weighs in, this one reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: “The tipping point where caffeine negatively affected cardiovascular risk is five cups.” So, if you are a coffee drinker, make sure you do not drink over five cups a day. As with any research, take the information with a grain of salt and before you increase your coffee intake, check with your medical team.