Coffee drinkers live longer

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Those who drink a lot of coffee are less likely to die prematurely. The protective effect starts with just one cup a day. Eight cups and more work even better. Apparently this has nothing to do with the caffeine it contains.

Advantage for coffee drinkers

After too much coffee was considered risky for a long time, there have been increasing reports in recent years about how healthy it is. It can protect against various diseases. The spectrum ranges from diabetes to heart attacks and strokes to Parkinson's, liver disease and colon cancer, to name just a few.

A large study with almost half a million participants provides further evidence of a protective effect: Those who drank a cup of coffee a day had an 8 percent lower risk of dying within ten years. Anyone who consumed eight cups or more could even reduce their risk of death by 14 percent.

"This is further evidence that coffee can be part of a healthy diet," says Erikka Loftfield of the National Institutes of Health, who led the study.

Data from half a million participants

Loftfield and her colleagues have found out based on data from the UK Biobank. This broad-based research initiative has been accompanying around half a million people since 2006 who were between 40 and 69 years old when they were admitted.

Their genes have been analyzed and since then they have participated in numerous health examinations and surveys, including information on lifestyle and eating habits. 14,255 of them died during the ten-year observation period.

Less cancer, less heart disease

In particular, deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease were less common among coffee drinkers. In people who mainly drank soluble coffee, the protective effect was somewhat lower. Whether there are also differences between filter coffee, espresso and other coffee preparations still has to be investigated.

Caffeine doesn't matter

There is also still speculation about which active ingredients in coffee could be responsible for the protective effect. In any case, it is not caffeine, because even those who preferred decaffeinated coffee were more likely to survive. The researchers also found that people who quickly break down caffeine due to their genetic makeup also benefit equally from the effect.

It may be the many antioxidants in coffee that have a protective effect. Among other things, they have the potential to inhibit inflammation, avert cell damage, protect blood vessels and stabilize the sugar balance.

The final proof is still pending

However, this large study does not provide any final proof that coffee actually extends life. Instead, it would be conceivable, for example, that people with a great thirst for coffee could live healthier in other ways.

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