Daily coffee consumption can augment your life expectancy

Forget the apple — grab a cup of your favourite brew because it’s coffee that will “keep the doctor away.” Well, it might not necessarily keep doctors at bay but a new study reports that daily coffee consumption can add up to two extra years of ‘healthy aging’ to your life.

A new research paper, “Impact of coffee intake on human aging: Epidemiology and cellular mechanisms,” published in Ageing Research Reviews this month and supported by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC) explores the science behind coffee’s relationship with healthy aging. The paper highlights research supporting coffee’s role in mitigating against major chronic disease and the natural mechanisms behind aging.

The percentage of the global population aged 65 and older is growing rapidly and expected to continue to rise, expanding from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050 per the United Nations. This new paper underlines the important role that regular, moderate coffee consumption can play for people in this aging population, as part of a healthy and balanced lifestyle. The National Coffee Association (NCA) of the USA has long promoted that independent scientific evidence shows that drinking coffee – both regular and decaffeinated – is associated with significant health benefits: “decades of scientific evidence show that drinking coffee (both caffeinated and decaffeinated) is associated with unique health benefits, including overall increased longevity and decreased risk of chronic disease.” T&CTJ has also extensively covered (and will continue to do so) the healthy benefits of coffee consumption. (For example, I wrote about the positive effects coffee can have on weight loss in a blog earlier this year: Drop the dumbbell and pick up a coffee mug… – Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.)

The European Food Safety Authority considers consuming up to 400mg of caffeine (3-5 cups of coffee) per day to be a moderate and safe amount for most adults. (For pregnant or lactating women, caffeine intake should be reduced to 200mg per day per “Scientific Opinion on the Safety of Caffeine,” EFSA Journal, 2015). The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) of the USA has cited that for most adults, 400 milligrams a day – about two to three 12-fluid-ounce cups of coffee – as an amount not generally associated with negative effects.

As one of the most widely studied commodities worldwide, numerous studies have already observed coffee’s potential role in mitigating against all-cause mortality – playing a discrete but nonetheless significant role in reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, cancers, respiratory diseases, cognitive decline, and frailty. The new review found that regular coffee consumption adds an average of 1.8 years of healthy living to a person’s life – meaning not only do they live longer, but also healthier lives. Some research suggests that other nutritional ‘anti-aging’ interventions may have a gender bias, however the review concluded the increased healthy life expectancy attributed to regular coffee consumption is seen in both men and women.

In addition to coffee’s role in reducing the risk of some major chronic diseases, the team behind the paper also specifically explored existing research around coffee’s important role in biological mechanisms linked with the aging process. This included coffee’s influence in mitigating genomic instability or cell mutations, which are a known trigger of aging, and strengthening regular cell function. The paper focused on studies on humans and human tissue only for these mechanisms — highlighting results that provide a more accurate and reliable understanding of coffee’s effects on human health.

Many traditional clinical recommendations for older people have advised decreasing or even avoiding coffee consumption altogether (Soroko S, Chang J, Barrett-Connor E (1996) “Reasons for changing caffeinated coffee consumption: the Rancho Bernardo Study” J Am Coll Nutr 15(1): 97-10; Sotos-Prieto M., Carrasco P., Sorlí J.V., Guillén M., Guillém-Sáiz P., Quiles L., Corella D (2010) “Coffee and tea consumption in a high cardiovascular risk Mediterranean population”, Nutr Hosp 25:388-393). This new paper suggests that these guidelines should now be re-evaluated on the basis of the existing compelling scientific evidence for coffee’s role in healthy aging.

While coffee is most commonly associated with its caffeine content, it also includes a mixture of over 2,000 potentially bioactive compounds. Polyphenol components may provide antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, with roles including reducing neuroinflammation or regulating insulin sensitivity.

The research notes that although both caffeine and non-caffeine components of coffee can help extend healthy lifespan, there is still much we don’t know about the exact mechanisms behind the role these components play. The authors highlight the strong potential for a wealth of further research on coffee’s health benefits in this field.

“We know that the world’s population is aging faster than ever, which is why it’s increasingly important to explore dietary interventions which may allow people to not only live longer but also healthier lives,” said lead author Rodrigo Cunha, Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal. “Traditional clinical recommendations have at times overlooked coffee’s role in healthy aging, “but with a strong research base around how regular consumption can potentially reduce some of the most chronic diseases facing society, it is likely time to re-evaluate these.”

Cunha added that their paper “underlines the role regular, moderate coffee consumption can play in mediating against the biological mechanisms which naturally slow or fail as we get older — triggering a range of potential health issues and comorbidities. And there is still room to understand more about exactly how these mechanisms work, as well as which individuals may be biologically pre-disposed to benefitting most from coffee’s interactions with them.”

Vanessa L Facenda, editor, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal
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