Coffee May Have a Longer-Term Perk

NY Times - Researchers followed more than 47,000 female nurses for several decades beginning in the 1970s. Every few years, the women answered detailed questions about their diets, including how much coffee, tea and cola (like Coca-Cola or Pepsi) they typically drank. Then, the scientists looked at how many of the women were still alive and met their definition of “healthy aging” in 2016.

Just over 3,700 women met that criteria: They were 70 or older; reported good physical and mental health, with no cognitive impairment or memory problems; and were free of 11 chronic diseases such as cancer, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

The researchers found a correlation between how much caffeine the women typically drank (which was mostly from coffee) when they were between 45 and 60 years old and their likelihood of healthy aging. After adjusting for other factors that could affect aging, such as their overall diet, how much they exercised and whether they smoked, those who consumed the most caffeine (equivalent to nearly seven eight-ounce cups of coffee per day) had odds of healthy aging that were 13 percent higher than those who consumed the least caffeine (equivalent to less than one cup per day).

Drinking tea or decaffeinated coffee was not associated with healthy aging, the researchers found. That may be because the study participants generally consumed less tea and decaffeinated coffee overall, so perhaps there were fewer chances for the researchers to find benefits linked to them, said Sara Mahdavi, an adjunct professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto who led the study. Tea and decaf coffee also have less caffeine, and tea has different plant compounds from regular coffee, so that may explain the results, too, she added.

Drinking cola, another potential source of caffeine, was associated with significantly decreased odds of healthy aging.

Dr. Mahdavi cautioned that while drinking up to seven small cups of coffee per day was associated with healthy aging in her study, that doesn’t necessarily mean that drinking that much will benefit everyone, nor that it is healthy to do so.