Drinking Coffee Can Reduce Risk of Early Death, Study Says

A new study, which is published at the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that drinking will also help reduce the risk of early death. Hence, it is now safe to say that it does not just give one an energy boost.

According to the cohort study, consuming four to five cups of coffee -- even the decaffeinated ones -- every day may help reduce the risk of death from various causes including heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, pneumonia and influenza, as well as intentional self-harm.

The group researchers, which is led by Dr. Erikka Loftfield of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute, hypothesized that this might be the case as drinking coffee positively affects inflammation, lung function, insulin sensitivity and depression.

In order to reach this conclusion, the researchers analyzed the health data of 90,317 cofee-drinking American adults who have no cancer during the 1998 to 2001 study baseline or who have no history of cardiovascular disease at study enrollment from 1993 to 2001.

A 10-year follow up from 1998 to 2009 was made from which a total of 8,718 deaths occurred.

Thus, from this, the researchers determined that, as compared to individuals who did not drink coffee, those who drank four to five cups of coffee daily had a lower risk of mortality. The same result goes for those who consumed two to three cups of coffee and decaffeinated coffee.

These results remain the same even after considering factors such as smoking and alcohol habits, as well as diet.

Moreover, as cited in the report by Medical News Today, the researchers also found that drinking four to five cups of coffee has no long-term health risks. The study also revealed that drinking coffee and death has no significant association from cancer as opposed to previous researches which claimed that drinking coffee is associated with certain cancers such as liver cancer.

"Although coffee drinking has also been inversely associated with incidence of certain cancers, like liver, in epidemiological studies, we did not observe an association between coffee and overall cancer mortality. This may be because coffee reduces mortality risk for some cancers but not others," Dr. Loftfield said via Fox News Health.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), 54 percent of Americans aged 18 and above drink coffee everyday, averaging 3.1 cups with the average size of 9 ounces. It was also stated that 65 percent of Americans drink coffee with breakfast and 25 percent drink it between meals.

Furthermore, a separate report from HSPH revealed that drinking coffee helps reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, liver cancer and cirrhosis, and Parkinson's disease.