While exercising, getting enough sleep, and limiting alcohol intake are good ways to lengthen lifespan, experts have discovered you can also drink yourself to longevity with the help of coffee.
“Ground, instant, and decaffeinated coffee were associated with reductions in the incidence of and death from cardiovascular disease or any cause,” the study’s author Prof. Peter Kistler of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Research Institute, said.
“The results suggest that mild to moderate intake of coffee should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle.”
Caffeine is the most well-known ingredient in coffee, but the beverage contains more than 100 biologically active components, including antioxidants, anti-inflammatory elements, and electrolytes.
“It is likely that the non-caffeinated compounds were responsible for the positive relationships observed between coffee drinking, cardiovascular disease, and survival,” Kistler said.
Participants in the longitudinal study reported the number of cups of coffee they drank per day and whether they mostly had instant, ground (such as cappuccino, filtered coffee), or decaffeinated coffee.
Nearly 45 percent said they drank instant, 18.4 percent was ground, and 15.2 percent drank decaffeinated.
22.4 percent were non-coffee drinkers who served as the control group.
The researchers compared coffee drinkers with non-drinkers with a follow-up at around 13 years, after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnoea, smoking status, tea, and alcohol consumption.
They found a reduction in death for all types of coffee drinkers, and the greatest reduction was for those who drank two to three cups a day, with a lowered risk of death for decaffeinated at 14 percent, ground at 27 percent, and instant at 11 percent.
Even during the follow-up 13 years later, the likelihood of heart disease for those who drank two to three cups of decaffeinated, ground, and instant coffee a day, was reduced by six percent, 20 percent, and nine percent respectively.
