MILWAUKEE - One of life's simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research, even some fear that coffee might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Java drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn't matter.
The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it's a guilty pleasure that may do harm.
"Our study suggests that's really not the case," said lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute. "There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking."
No one knows why. Coffee contains a thousand things that can affect health, from helpful anti-oxidants to tiny amounts of substances linked to cancer. Caffeine didn't play a role in the new study's results.
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It's not that earlier studies were wrong. Even in the new study, it first seemed that coffee drinkers were more likely to die at any given time. But they also tended to smoke, drink more alcohol, eat more red meat and exercise less than non-coffee-drinkers. Once researchers took those things into account, a clear pattern emerged: Each cup of coffee per day nudged up the chances of living longer.
The study was done by the National Institutes of Health and AARP. The results are published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
Careful, though - this doesn't prove that coffee makes people live longer, only that the two seem related. Like most studies on diet and health, this one was based strictly on observing people's habits and resulting health. So it can't prove cause and effect.
Of the 402,260 participants, about 42,000 drank no coffee. About 15,000 drank six cups or more a day. Most people had two or three.
By 2008, about 52,000 of them had died. Compared to those who drank no coffee, men who had two or three cups a day were 10 percent less likely to die at any age. For women, it was 13 percent.
Even a single cup a day seemed to lower risk a little: 6 percent in men and 5 percent in women. The strongest effect was in women who had four or five cups a day - a 16 percent lower risk of death.
At a glance
Why the fuzzy research?
Older studies weren't wrong. Coffee can raise cholesterol and blood pressure in the short term, which in turn can raise the risk of heart disease.
But few studies have looked at coffee and the risk of dying of any cause, let alone specific diseases. Some of those that have involved too few deaths to make firm comparisons.
Can we trust this one?
No study is perfect, and like most diet studies, this one is just based on observing people's habits and resulting health. So it can't prove coffee lengthens lives. But experts say it's the best look yet at this issue.
It involved more than 400,000 people and was done by the National Institutes of Health and AARP.
Researchers also took into account smoking, drinking alcohol, exercise and other things that can skew results.
How much difference did coffee make?
Very little, especially in relation to bigger factors such as smoking.
Compared with those who drank no coffee, men who had two or three cups a day were 10 percent less likely to die at any age. For women, it was 13 percent.
A single cup a day lowered risk a tiny bit: 6 percent in men and 5 percent in women. The strongest effect was in women who had four or five cups a day - they had a 16 percent lower risk of death.
So it's OK to drink all I want?
Watch the sugar and cream. Extra calories and fat could negate any good from drinking coffee.
Doctors also suggest drinking filtered coffee, which removes the compounds that raise LDL or bad cholesterol.
Source: The Associated Press.
