A SIP OF GOOD NEWS, AT LEAST FOR COFFEE LOVERS

It's rare to find out that something you like is actually good for you. But today we can report that coffee really is. Here's the good news, freshly poured:

As part of a large multi-year study, researchers were able to compare coffee consumption and a variety of health outcomes for more than 185,000 people in California and Hawaii. As reported in the July 11, 2021 issue of the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine, over the course of the study coffee drinkers lived longer and suffered fewer cases of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, respiratory illness and kidney disease. 

Credit: stokpik/Pixabay

How large were these benefits? On the average people were followed for 16 years, starting at ages from 45 to 75. Over the course of the study 31 percent of the participants died, with cardiovascular disease and cancer being the biggest risks. People who drank one cup of coffee a day were 12 percent less likely to die during the study period than non-coffee-drinkers, and people who drank two or three cups per day were 18 percent less likely to die. 

So not only did coffee add years to people's lives, it also added years of good health.

Veronica Setiawan, an associate professor of preventative medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine, and the study's lead author, is impressed enough with these findings that she's suggesting that non-coffee-drinkers reconsider. "We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association," she says. "If you like to drink coffee, drink up! If you're not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start."

One of this study's strongest points is the rich ethnic mix of its participants. It enrolled large cohorts of African-Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese-Americans, Latinos and whites. It turned out that all of these groups showed comparable benefits from coffee consumption. "This study is the largest of its kind and includes minorities who have very different lifestyles," Setiawan says. "Seeing a similar pattern across different populations gives stronger biological backing to the argument that coffee is good for you whether you are white, African-American, Lationo or Asian."

An interesting wrinkle was the finding that it made no difference whether participants drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Instead, Setiawan suspects antioxidants and other chemicals in coffee provide the health benefits she found. "Coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play an important role in cancer prevention," she says.  "Although this study does not show causation or point to what chemicals in coffee may have this 'elixir effect,' it is clear that coffee can be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle."

As I finish off my third cup of Joe for the day, it's great to be able to report some news that put a smile on my face, and I suspect will do the same for many others as well.

---

REA 7/20/21

---

And, as a bonus, another large long-term study finds that, contrary to its reputation, coffee doesn't add to the risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias. In fact, each additional daily cup of coffee was associated with a 3 percent reduction in the incidence of arrhythmia.

However, there really can be too much of a good thing. Just-published research from Australia indicates that people who drink more than six cups of coffee a day are putting themselves at significantly higher risk of stroke and dementia. The devil, it seems, is in the dose.