Could Drinking Coffee Help You Live Longer? [Body Blog]

May 28, 2012 4:30 pm     Posted in Body, Food, Health, Homepage Exclusive  Garnet Henderson g+ page


By Garnet Henderson

I resisted coffee for a long time. I used to hate the taste, and I didn’t want to depend on caffeine to get me through my days. I made it through all of high school and my first two years of college as a tea-only person. But then something happened. The long nights of college. My summer job that required me to be at work by 7 a.m. Adulthood maybe? And now, after my junior year of college, I am a full-on coffee addict. I love the taste. And it’s gotten very, very difficult for me to get my day started without a cup.

Luckily for me, my newfound love of coffee might be great for my health. A new study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, showed that older coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death than those who don’t drink coffee. This lower risk of death was seen in decaf drinkers as well.

The participants in the study ranged in age from 50 to 71. They filled out a questionnaire about their coffee drinking habits when the study began in 1995-1996, and then were followed either until their death or until the study’s conclusion in 2008. Overall, people who drank three or more cups of coffee per day had a 10% lower risk of death than those who did not. And women who drank six or more cups per day had a 15% lower risk of death than women who drank no coffee.

Six cups? That’s a lot of coffee. Some of the old ladies in this study made my own coffee habits look really tame! And of course, since most college students aren’t in their 50s or 60s, it’s difficult to tell whether our age group may see the same health benefits from coffee. More research also needs to be done in order to determine whether or not coffee drinkers might have something else in common that leads to a lower risk of death.

Still, it’s interesting to think about. Wouldn’t it be great if your coffee habit led to awesome health benefits? For now, I’m just going to tell myself that my morning cup is doing wonders for my longevity.

What do YOU think? Is coffee your healthy secret weapon?

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

10 Comments on "Could Drinking Coffee Help You Live Longer? [Body Blog]"

  1. behealthy2012 says:
    Mon, 28th May 20125:53 pm 

    I'm a coffee drinker too. Dr. Oz recommended in one of his shows to drink 6 cups of coffee to lower the risk of cancer. However, I believe there are other side effects he forgot to mention…

  2. Virginia says:
    Mon, 28th May 201210:46 pm 

    It's tough with coffee because there are so many conflicting sources of information about its benefits and risks. A study at Duke University suggests that coffee heightens your stress response–the cumulative effects of daily caffeine consumption, thus, could lead to an increased risk for heart disease or strokes, along with all the other nasty potential side effects of stress. On the other hand, there's the purported carcinogen-fighting agents of coffee, as discussed in this article. I suppose a lot of it comes down to how much you consume per day.

  3. Sam - Emory University says:
    Tue, 29th May 201212:18 pm 

    this makes me feel alot better about those skinny vanilla lattes i get at starbucks haha just kidding, but it does make me feel about my excessive love for coffee!

  4. Margaretski says:
    Thu, 7th Jun 20124:04 am 

    Adulthood maybe? And now, after my junior year of college, I am a full-on coffee addict. I love the taste. And it’s gotten very, very difficult for me to get my day started without a cup.

  5. Sien says:
    Tue, 12th Jun 20129:09 am 

    After 2 cups of coffee, your body is having trouble in processing the caffeine, your stress level moves up and your heart rate changes, not to mention that coffee is dehydrating, so each time you drink a cup, you should drink 2 cups of water… Maybe something makes it so that in a long term diet including coffee each day lowers the death risks, but it is highly suggested to not drink more than 2 cups of coffee a day… maybe you can get decas after for the same effect?

  6. lisa_k says:
    Thu, 27th Sep 201211:12 am 

    I love coffee, but recently due to sensitivity to the acidic content I've switched to energy "shots" (Eternal Energy Shot). These little guys are a great alternative to coffee, and they're inexpensive too. Caffeine works wonders

  7. Kay says:
    Tue, 27th Nov 20127:46 am 

    Usually it happens in our student life people give us a suggestion to drink a coffee or tea to concentrate on our study, but slowly it become our addiction and drinking more than 3 or 4 cups in a day can be harmful for us.

Tell us what you're thinking...