“Coffee is bad for you.” No, “coffee is good for you.” It seems every year or so, the pendulum swings one way or the other on the health benefits – or not – of everyone’s favorite morning beverage. Now, the latest research puts your morning Joe squarely back in the “plus” column, suggesting that drinking coffee regularly may add an average of 1.8 years of healthy living to a person’s life. Full disclosure: the study was sponsored by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee, but it still has some valid and interesting results.
The ”meta-analysis” or “study of studies” conducted by researchers at the University of Coimbra in Portugal says that drinking coffee regularly may add an average of 1.8 years of healthy living to a person’s life.
The review was funded by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), the collective nonprofit organization set up by companies from the coffee industry, including illycaffè, JDE Peet’s, Lavazza, Nestlé, Paulig, and Tchibo. Despite that seeming bias behind the funding of the review, researchers independently analyzed the findings of more than 50 previous studies examining how coffee might impact a person’s lifespan.
“Coffee is the most widely consumed beverage after water, which should justify a detailed understanding of its impact [on] health,” Rodrigo Cunha, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, and lead author of this study, told Medical News Today.
“Moderate intake of coffee was found to decrease the incidence of several chronic diseases,” Cunha told us.
“Since age is [a] major risk factor for the development of several chronic diseases, it made sense to inquire if the benefit of coffee intake was due to its ability to decrease the aging process,” he noted.
After detailed analysis, Cunha and his team calculated that people who regularly consume coffee could potentially add an average of 1.8 years of healthy living to their lives.
“Aging of the world’s population may well be a trap if people leave longer but with more diseases and poorer quality of life,” Cunha said. “Thus, the quest should be to increase health span rather than lifespan.”
Cunha explained that the molecular constituents of coffee affect mechanisms that are linked to aging processes, helping to slow them down.
“In simple words, chlorogenic acids are antioxidants that can attenuate the chemical deterioration of our cells and allow for better cell recovery after exposure to noxious stimuli,” he explained.
“In parallel, caffeine refrains the activation of receptors signaling stress and/or danger, prompting a reorganization of resources for optimal and more constant function, thus preserving the quality of our cells despite recurrent challenges,” added Cunha.
Nevertheless, “there is a long road ahead to understand who will benefit the most from coffee intake and what types of coffee and what types of patterns of coffee intake afford the maximal benefits,” he pointed out.
