Drinking up the latest on coffee*

Drinking buckets of coffee a day — up to six cups — may reduce your risk of death from heart disease, if ever so slightly, according to a new report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Or not.

Analyzing data culled from 84,214 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1980 to 2004 and 41,736 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1986 to 2004, researchers found that:

• Women who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 25% lower risk of death from heart disease.
• Women who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had an 18% lower risk of death caused by something other than heart disease or cancer.
• Men who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had no change in risk.
• There was no association between coffee and cancer deaths.

Interestingly, people who drank decaffeinated coffee had death rates similar to those who drank caffeinated coffee. This suggests that there may be some other factor at work — something unrelated to coffee that coffee drinkers share. [*Note, readers rightly pointed out that other constituents in the coffee could be responsible for the results.]

Among the women in the study:

• 2,368 died of heart disease
• 5,011 of cancer
• 3,716 of another cause

Among the men:

• 2,049 died of heart disease
• 2,491 of cancer
• 2,348 of another cause.

--Janet Cromley

Comments

[kelsang dechog]

"...people who drank decaffeinated coffee had death rates similar to those who drank caffeinated coffee. This suggests that there may be some other factor at work — something unrelated to coffee that coffee drinkers share"

A more economical supposition would be that the shared factor is unrelated to caffeine, and perhaps is the coffee itself: ie. coffee's colored substances or phytonutrients.

[Vladimir Peanut]

Isn't funny how when sales of things are visibly down, in particular things we ingest, they suddenly become arguably good for you...and always in excess? (This couldn't smack of a really sneaky marketing ploy, could it? Stocks couldn't be at the bottom of this somehow...could they?)

[Robert]

The following is an error:

"Interestingly, researchers did not find a relationship between caffeine and the risk of death. That is, people who drank decaffeinated coffee had death rates similar to those who drank caffeinated coffee. This suggests that there may be some other factor at work — something unrelated to coffee that coffee drinkers share."

While that is one possibility, it is not the most likely one. The type of error the author suggests the researchers made -- selection bias -- would be a rookie mistake and is not likely in a study of this size and scope.

More likely, decaffeinated coffee produces the same effects because the effects are caused by something in the coffee other than the caffeine. The author made the assumption that the only important chemical component in coffee is caffeine. In fact, there is a lot more in a cup of coffee, biologically speaking, than that mild central nervous system stimulant. Antioxidants, etc.

[Kevo]

maybe people who drink coffee are people who live active lives and need the jolt to keep them going day in and day out. They live longer because of the psychological benefits of being active.

[Sean]

I'm afraid nothing is going to lower your risk of death. Life is a death sentence, the only variables are the date and method of execution.

[joan ca]

This info made one happy person, coffee and dark chocolate, am in hog heaven!

[Ross]

Why doesn't anybody ever try to establish any causality in such studies? Reminds me of a study that made all kinds of funny conclusions based on the fact that men older than 60 are less likely to have a heart attack if they have sex at least twice a week...

[rmem]

Coffee "may reduce your risk of death"? Really? Seeing as the risk of death for everyone is currently 100%, this is HUGE news.

[Jay]

Greetings from a research methods instructor. Much the same has been posited for liquor, especially wine. The problem is that these studies are not long-term controlled experiments, with one group getting controlled doses of coffee, booze, sugar, whatever, while an equivalent group has the same diet but without coffee, booze... Short of that, lifestyle, biological and genetic factors make it risky to draw any conclusions, even with all the fancy statistical tools at hand. Yes, they've done experiments on insects and animals, but even researchers are reluctant to draw any firm comparisons. One interesting study I heard about involved older cigarette smokers: as long as cancer doesn't get you, you may live longer than non-smokers because nicotine's appetite-suppressing effect keeps you slimmer. Caveat emptor!

[ruelzy]

As a heavy coffee drinker for years, I quite cold turkey in 1970. A withdrawal headache prsisted for several days. Now, in my mid eighties and fairly active,, i believe that quitting was the smart thing to do.

[gabriel]

drinking cofee is more than just drinking, it's a moment of inspiration and relaxation, break time, sharing with someone special or not so special, the moment and aroma blends in to suit your particular occasion and that's why we all look forward to a cofee moment. It may prolong your life, simply because it helps you slow down while you drink it.

[e]

How about the fact that coffee is expensive, and you live longer when you have more money (and thus access to better food, less stressful living conditions, better health care, etc).

[Lela]

To coffee or not to coffee is a complicated question. Drinking "buckets" may reduce my risk of heart disease slightly, but even a cup a day of coffee gives me terrible PMS symptoms, which clear up when I avoid it. It's no secret that coffee can make it tougher for a woman to conceive, for instance, and recent studies indicate that caffeine increases the likelihood of miscarriage. And then there's that pesky detail of being able to go to bed at night after buckets of coffee.

Coffee is bitter, and bitter flavors tend to stimulate the liver, which is a major blood cleansing organ - could this be related to why coffee drinkers have less heart disease? Bitter green vegetables, which are also great for your liver (probably better, vitamins yadda yadda), are not super popular in the American diet. It may be that coffee provides that bitter stimulus that we otherwise lack.

[Catherine]

I read some time ago, that decaffeinated coffee lows the good cholesterol.
Anyone heard about that?
Catherine

[Travis]

Do a study on people who own boats and you'll probably find they live longer compared to those who don't.

Wow, does that mean buying a boat will improve my health?

NO, if you can afford a boat you're probably going to live longer anyway, all the boat will do is indicate you have money.

Greater wealth = Statistically longer life

I'm sure there are real health benefits to drinking coffee just as I know there are people who suffer migraines when they go without it.

Too often however, articles such as this facetiously imply the most popular or interesting interpretation of study data is in fact the truth. Such as the idea that drinking coffee directly reduces your risk of heart disease (for women at least).

I think the more likely explanation for this study's data was touched upon by Kevo a little earlier. People who drink coffee in the morning don't usually sit around the house all day. Most people drink "two to three cups" of coffee in order to get through the work day and so perhaps this is merely an indicator for employment. Look at a study on the health effects of employment and you are likely to find similar results.

[Tony Chowdhury]

Somone should find out who pays for this type of research works . Most likely the financing & sponsership is done by the Coffee companies & their affiliates .

You constantly see these and that Universities doing similar reserch on pity little stuff, which hardly serves us that well .

There are far more crtictial & important research that are beign done on heart disease.

Unversities needs money for reserch works and that comes from vested quarters -l for not so serious research work , like many of the comments posted here rightfully points out .

Just live a simple healthy life with moderation to everything we do is best advice .

We are here for a very short span of time . Trying to be good is bad enough let alone increase our life span by few years with few cups of coffee a day is like eating wonder bread - as it sounds . There is no wonders

[Scott]

It seems that there are many variables to why people that drink coffee (decaf or regular) are at a decreased risk for heart disease. At this point all the data shows us is that there is more research necessary to find out what is actually decreasing the risk. The correlation between coffee drinking and decreased heart disease is interesting and warrants further investigation.

[swag]

We've been drinking this crap for 1000 years. Doesn't anyone realize if it was really good or really bad for us, we would have known by now after 40 generations?!

Coffee is irrelevant to your health, good or bad. But as long as people keep acting like it was discovered last week, they'll keep funding research and newspapers will keep printing it -- because people seem to eat it up anyway.