Drinking coffee may boost odds of aging well, study finds
FILE-A close-up of a cup of coffee on a table. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
A new study implies that a key to healthy aging may be found in your daily coffee consumption.
Researchers in a report published on the National Library of Medicine's website infer that drinking moderate amounts of caffeinated coffee could help you live longer.
What did the study reveal about coffee drinking and aging?
Why you should care:
Researchers evaluated the consumption of coffee, tea, sodas, and decaf coffee consumption of over 47,000 women who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study, per research released at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, CNN reported.
Women examined in the study were middle-aged and were monitored for 30 years. The study noted that in the 30-year follow-up more than 3,000 women met the criteria for healthy aging, which is defined as living past 70 years old, not having 11 major chronic diseases and having no issues with physical function, mental health, cognition, or memory.
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The study noted that women between the ages of 45 to 60 consumed an average of 315 milligrams of daily caffeine. Each additional cup of coffee that exceeded 80 milligrams each day is linked to 2% to 5% greater odds of healthy aging, which is 2.5 cups of coffee.
Meanwhile, the study showed that consuming tea or decaffeinated coffee — and cola or other caffeinated sodas was connected to a lower chance of healthy aging.
Lead study author Dr. Sara Mahdavi, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the New York Post that the data in the study suggests that caffeinated coffee not tea or decaf might support aging in a way that preserves mental and physical ability.
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Mahdavi’s initial findings for the study identified other factors that impact healthy aging, like weight, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, education level and protein intake.
She also told CNN that moderate coffee consumption, which she defines as three cups daily, may be part of a healthy diet for adults, but adds that this isn’t a recommendation for everyone to start drinking more coffee to enhance healthy aging.
Madhavi explained to the New York Post that while this study is a continuation of previous evidence implying coffee intake may be linked with healthy aging, the benefits from coffee are modest compared to the effect of overall healthy lifestyle habits like diet and exercise and require more research.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by a study published on the National Library of Medicine’s website, CNN and the New York Post. Both news outlets received comments from the lead author of the study. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.