Coffee Drinkers Have Lower Risk of Some Diseases, Claims NIH Study

A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and AARP has reportedly found that older adults who drank either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee “had a lower risk of death overall than others who did not drink coffee,” according to a May 16, 2012, NIH press release. Neal Freedman, et al., “Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality,” New England Journal of Medicine, May 2012. After analyzing data from 400,000 men and women ages 50 to 71 who participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, researchers evidently concluded that coffee drinkers “were less likely to die from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections, although the association was not seen for cancer.” In particular, the study’s authors noted that the “association between coffee and reduction in risk of death increased with the amount of coffee consumed,” as subjects who reported consuming three or more cups per day had an approximately 10 percent lower risk of death compared to those who did not drink coffee at all.

“Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in America, but the
association between coffee consumption and risk of death has been unclear. We
found coffee consumption to be associated with lower risk of death overall, and
of death from a number of different causes,” one author was quoted as saying.
“Although we cannot infer a causal relationship between coffee drinking and
lower risk of death, we believe these results do provide some reassurance that
coffee drinking does not adversely affect health.”