STUDY FINDS COFFEE COULD BE LINKED TO HEALTHY AGING IN WOMEN
There's good news for those of you who require a cup of coffee to get going in the morning. Getting your coffee fix can actually help you age better, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition. The paper is the result of 30 years of research and has not yet been published or peer-reviewed.
Dr. Sara Mahdavi, an adjunct professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University's Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, presented the results. Starting in the early 1980s, the study tracked about 50,000 women from the Nurses' Health Study. These 47,513 women's dietary and health information was gathered over a three-decade period, providing unique insight into the ageing process.
Throughout the process, the women were questioned regarding their caffeine consumption, particularly the amount of coffee they were consuming. The researchers found a smaller group of 3,706 women who fit the definition of "healthy ageing" in 2016, when the women were in their 70s. The ladies in this cohort, who were between the ages of 45 and 60, surprisingly drank three tiny cups of coffee a day on average (or one and a half large cups by today's standards). Every extra cup of coffee consumed daily by the women in the healthy group enhanced their health and raised their chances of living a healthy life by 2% to 5%.
According to Dr. Mahdavi, "these data, however preliminary, imply that tiny, regular practices might impact long-term health." When paired with other healthful habits like consistent exercise, eating a balanced diet, and quitting smoking, moderate coffee use may provide some protective advantages. Although this study supports earlier research that suggested coffee consumption may be associated with healthy ageing, the advantages of coffee are not as great as those of adopting generally healthy lifestyle choices and call for more research.
Interestingly, the researchers didn't find a clear correlation between drinking tea or decaffeinated coffee and living a long life. Additionally, the results indicated that each small glass of soda was linked to a 20% to 26% decreased risk of healthy ageing, even if soda is also a source of caffeine.
In light of these findings, scientists will now start examining the relationships between certain coffee constituents and metabolic and genetic ageing markers, especially in women. A new era of tailored therapy for longevity and cognitive health may then become possible with an understanding of these mechanisms.
The researchers warn that, generally speaking, up to two cups of coffee per day should be safe and may be helpful for most individuals, so if you feel that this is a good reason to raise your coffee consumption, don't. Following that, some people may gain, while others may experience negative reactions. Thus, moderation is essential. Even so, you can feel good about its long-term consequences when you pour your coffee in the morning.