Adults who drink coffee, whether with or without caffeine, have a lower risk of mortality than those who do not. These are the surprising conclusions of a work published in the magazineThe New England Journal of Medicine, after evaluating the habits of400,000 peoplefrom the United States.
The study participants were men and women between the ages of 50 and 71 who in 1995 responded to an extensive questionnaire about their habits. The researchers, from the National Cancer Institute (Washington DC, USA), followed the health history and deaths, if any, registered until December 31, 2008. With these data they discovered that coffee drinkers were less likely to die of heart failure, respiratory diseases, stroke, diabetes and infections, while this association was not observed for cancer cases.
The researchers warn, however, that the reasons why coffee makes you live longer are unknown, and perhaps it could be indirect effects related to other types of habits. “The mechanism by which coffee protects against the risk of mortality is not clear, sincecoffee contains more than 1,000 compounds that could potentially affect health“explained Neal Freedman, one of the authors.” The most studied component has always been caffeine, but our results do not vary between those who drink decaffeinated coffee and those who consume it with caffeine, “he added. Another possibility could be be the way to prepare it – espresso, boiled, filtered … – an aspect in which, according to scientists, it would be necessary to deepen in future research.
