Once thought of as an unhealthy pleasure, research has been driving a re-evaluation of drinking coffee. Instead of eliminating your coffee, the new research suggests you should feel good about enjoying it. But you have to enjoy it in the right way in the right amount.
Drinking coffee can actually help you live longer. Recent research shows that a cup a day reduces your risk of dying prematurely by 12%. 2-3 cups a day reduces it by 18%.
Now a massive new review of the research builds the convincing case that coffee helps prevent many of the major diseases that cause death and helps you to actually live longer.
Over 50 studies now show that coffee prevents premature death from all causes and helps you live longer.
It’s one thing to live longer. It’s quite another to live longer healthily. The research shows that coffee can help you to do both.
The research now shows that drinking coffee can help you to live longer. In studies, the people who drink coffee are 15% less likely to die during the study. This benefit translates into a 1.84 year increase in life expectancy.
Coffee drinking is related to the habit of smoking. And, though the news is generally good for coffee, it is, as always, bad for smoking. Coffee’s benefit on longevity is more evident in nonsmokers and weaker in smokers.
Just because coffee can help you live longer doesn’t mean that drinking more coffee can help you live even longer. The research is very consistent that there is a sweet spot for coffee. Drinking one cup of coffee a day helps a little and drinking 3 cups a day helps the most. But the benefit starts to drop off with increasing cups after that.
Coffee helps, not only to live longer, but to live longer healthier: it mildly benefits most of the leading chronic disease causes of death.
There is strong evidence that coffee helps prevent cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, arrhythmia and stroke, as well as some of the risk factors, like metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and obesity. Coffee reduces
not only the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the risk of dying of it. Once again, the benefit is seen in the 2-3 cups a day sweet spot.
Coffee may also help prevent some kinds of cancer. Moderate coffee drinking may be associated with a reduced risk of liver cancer, colorectal cancer and melanoma. It may help with oral/pharyngeal cancer, kidney cancer and advanced prostate cancer. There is mixed results for other cancers.
Drinking coffee also prevents death from respiratory disease.
In the elderly, 2-3 cups of coffee a day can also reduce the risk of depression, anxiety and stress. Interestingly and importantly, coffee reduces thoughts of suicide and the number of deaths from suicide. Rates of suicide are higher among the elderly. Large studies point to a 25% lower risk of suicide among middle-aged men and women with each additional 2 cups a day of coffee.
And finally, there is strong evidence that coffee drinking prevents frailty in seniors. Frailty refers specifically to functional deterioration caused by loss of bone and muscle. Coffee is associated with better physical functioning, less aging associated loss of muscle (sarcopenia), and reduced odds of frailty. It also reduces the risk of falls and fractures in the elderly.
Consistent with so much of the research, the review cautions that adding sugar or dairy to your coffee can be expected to offset the benefits on lifespan.
This huge review of the research establishes that drinking 2-3 cups of coffee a day helps preserve cardiovascular, muscular, mental and immune system functions. It slightly reduces the risk of getting or dying from the leading disease causes of death and helps you to live longer: 1.84 years longer.
Ageing Research Reviews. December 2024;102:102581.
