400,000 US men and women ages 50-71 who participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study were evaluated for coffee consumption, caffeinated and decaffeinated. When other factors were controlled for, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, drinking coffee was associated with a lower risk of death from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections. There was no association with cancer for women, and a slightly increased risk of cancer in coffee drinkers for men. The associations were most powerful in those who drank three or more cups of coffee per day.
I don't feel coffee is the evil drink some people make it out to be. There are some healthy aspects of coffee. I feel that three or four cups per day may disrupt the optimal function of your body's stress response by keeping you more revved up. It may also contribute to sleep disturbances. In this study that was not enough to be associated with death. I tell my patients that one cup in the morning is fine. You need to be careful about adding a lot of cream and sugar as those are empty calories.
The study did not break out how the coffee was prepare: espresso? latte? drip coffee? boiled coffee?
This study was published in the May 17 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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