Feature story by US Correspondent
Want to reach older age with a sharp mind and healthy body? Part of the answer may be in your coffee cup, according to new research.
“Women who drank one to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day in their 50s were more likely to reach older age free from major chronic diseases and with good cognitive, physical, and mental health,” said lead study author Dr. Sara Mahdavi, adjunct professor in the faculty of medicine and department of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto.
Researchers analyzed dietary data from more than 47,000 women who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study, according to the research released Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando.
The study was presented as an abstract, but a more in-depth manuscript of the investigation will be submitted for peer review in the coming months, Mahdavi said.
The women were surveyed in middle age and followed for 30 years to understand their rates of death and disease.
“In this study, we found that moderate caffeinated coffee consumption during midlife was associated with a higher likelihood of healthy aging 30 years later,” Mahdavi said.
The effects were found in caffeinated coffee in particular, according to the research.
The same link was not found for tea or decaffeinated coffee — and drinking more cola or other caffeinated sodas was tied to a lower chance of healthy aging.
“This would imply that coffee in particular has health preserving or promoting effects,” said Dr. David Kao, Jacqueline Marie Schauble Leaffer Endowed Chair in Women’s Heart Disease and associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School in an email. “As with other studies, they also appear to have found that coffee has a particular benefit over other caffeinated drinks.”
That said, the research is high quality, added Kao, who was not involved in the research.
The study is also observational, meaning it is limited in its ability to examine direct cause and effect. The new research can only show that a behavior and an outcome are more likely to occur together.
Researchers did take that into account and adjusted for other factors that could link coffee drinking and healthy aging such as lifestyle, demographic and other dietary differences, but it is still possible there is another variable at play, Mahdavi said.
But the link between coffee and healthy aging isn’t surprising –– it is consistent with prior research, Kao said.
Moderate coffee drinking has been linked before to lower risks of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, he added.
Does this mean you should take on a coffee habit if you don’t have one already? Not necessarily, Mahdavi said.
“Coffee may support longevity, but it’s not a universal prescription — especially for women. Hormonal shifts influence how caffeine is metabolized, so the benefits depend on timing, biology, and individual health,” she said in an email.
Estrogen inhibits a liver enzyme that is crucial for breaking down caffeine, which means that caffeine may last longer in the body of some people, especially those going through hormonal transitions such as menopause or pregnancy or those using oral contraception, Mahdavi said.
Midlife, the time period examined in this study, is a life stage marked by hormonal and metabolic shifts for women, she added.
“Moderate caffeinated coffee consumption — typically one to three cups per day — can be part of a healthy diet for many adults,” Mahdavi said. “However, this should not be taken as a blanket recommendation for everyone to begin or increase coffee intake with the goal of longevity.”
For one thing, the data can’t say whether increasing coffee consumption would help to preserve health, Kao said.
The findings do suggest that people don’t necessarily need to decrease their coffee consumption in the name of healthy aging, Kao said.
“Coffee is an important and positive part of daily life in many cultures around the world, he said. “For many … the knowledge that a daily coffee or 3 is probably not harmful is welcome news.”
That said, some people do need to watch their coffee consumption, including those with high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety and sleep disorders, said Dr. Lu Qi, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and professor at Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans.
Qi was not involved in the research but was involved in another recent study showing that having coffee in the morning had a better impact on lowering death rates than drinking it throughout the day.
Although coffee may be an enjoyable aspect of good health, it does not replace other healthy behaviors such as eating nutritious foods, exercising and getting good sleep, Mahdavi added.
