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Science

Coffee Drinkers Are More Likely To Live Longer. Decaf May Do The Trick, Too (npr.org) 230

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Coffee is far from a vice. There's now lots of evidence pointing to its health benefits, including a possible longevity boost for those of us with a daily coffee habit. From a report: The latest findings come from a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine that included about a half-million people in England, Scotland and Wales. "We found that people who drank two to three cups per day had about a 12 percent lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers" during the decade-long study, says Erikka Loftfield, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. Participants ranged in age from 38 to 73. The association held up among drinkers of decaffeinated coffee, too. In the U.S., there are similar findings linking higher consumption of coffee to a lower risk of early death in African-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Latinos and white adults, both men and women. A daily coffee habit is also linked to a decreased risk of stroke and Type 2 diabetes.
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Coffee Drinkers Are More Likely To Live Longer. Decaf May Do The Trick, Too More

Coffee Drinkers Are More Likely To Live Longer. Decaf May Do The Trick, Too

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  • ...time for a cup of joe...

  • More Coffee - Less Sugary Soda (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @01:31PM (#56880512) Homepage Journal

    That's how it works.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 )

      That's how it works.

      Let's stop with the bullshit already.

      People don't drink actual coffee anymore. They drink iced-mocha-caramel-chocolate fuckuccinos that make sugary sodas look like a fucking green smoothie by comparison. That's how this "works".

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Holi ( 250190 )
        Umm, no. I drink coffee, splash of milk and 2 sugars. Last I checked I was people.

      • Re:More Coffee - Less Sugary Soda (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02, 2018 @02:19PM (#56880992)

        What the hell is up with /. recently? Not that it was always an utopia of constructive and civil accord, but now every topic is filled with ignoramuses who can't write a sentence without spewing curse words and aggression. Are you all like this at work as well? Or just feeling brave on the internet? The level of discourse is tragic, but maybe it's a sign of the times.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by neonv ( 803374 )

        A reference would be appreciated rather than an assumption that everyone in this study was drinking sugary processed coffee.

      • People that actually like coffee drink espressos, and if they go the milk route, they get a flat white at worst.

      • People don't drink actual coffee anymore. They drink iced-mocha-caramel-chocolate fuckuccinos

        Those aren't people, those are animals. Though people in Europe would claim that Americans never actually ever drank coffee and despite all the associated health risks at least the iced-mocha-caramel-chocolate fuckuccinos is remotely palatable :-)

        Buy an espresso machine already.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Seems pretty likely. I would like to know how beer instead of coffee stacks up here... ;-)

    • So what about things like Coke Zero or diet sodas which have no sugar in them? It's it's not like 99% of people are drinking their coffee black with no sugar or creamer.

  • Coffee makes some drinkers immortal? (Score:4, Funny)

    by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @01:32PM (#56880528) Homepage

    From TFS and TFA: "We found that people who drank two to three cups per day had about a 12 percent lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers."

    Wow. I gotta start drinking coffee.

    Or, could it be a poorly worded sentence that the writer jumped on?

    • Yeah, lol, I see what you mean. But keep in mind the line from Fight Club:

      On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

    • Some of this could be ascribed to not falling asleep at the wheel, and to socialization factors, of course.

  • Addiction (Score:5, Funny)

    by PackMan97 ( 244419 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @01:33PM (#56880544)
    Even though caffeine is a fairly weak drug, this shows the power of addiction. Caffeine addicts need that morning cup 'o joe so badly that they'll tell the Grim Reaper to bugger off and wait until they've had their coffee. Apparently it works!
    • ...smiley face...

    • Even though caffeine is a fairly weak drug, this shows the power of addiction.

      Caffeine addicts need that morning cup 'o joe so badly that they'll tell the Grim Reaper to bugger off and wait until they've had their coffee. Apparently it works!

      Not everyone is addicted to caffeine. I also wonder how much of the impact of caffeine is psychological. (you expect coffee to wake you up, so it does).

      I love coffee, I dink a lot, but I find myself most unaffected by caffeine. It doesn't wake me up or give me energy- nor do I have any withdrawal symptoms, I sometimes go a week without coffee if I run out and can't find a good deal somewhere...

      I love to drink coffee right before bed, it's warm and calms me and helps me sleep.

      The only symptom I get from d

      • Re:Addiction (Score:4, Informative)

        by pnutjam ( 523990 ) <slashdot&borowicz,org> on Monday July 02, 2018 @02:23PM (#56881030) Homepage Journal
        Stimulants can have a calming effect on people with ADHD.
      • Love coffee and I can have it at any time even before bedtime. Actually, espresso makes me drowsy.

        • Re:Wow, your experience mimicks mine (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @03:03PM (#56881326)

          I'm naturally an insomniac, although becoming less of one as I age. My kids now have the same problem, other people in my family have had the same problem. Insomnia runs in the family. When I was a teenager going through my early 30's I would live on a three day cycle. Night 1: no sleep and not feel tired the next day; night 2: 1 or 2 hours sleep max, but I do feel tired in the morning; night 3: sleep like a log- body reset.

          It was an endless cycle of those three days. In my 30's I started drinking more coffee- and found I started sleeping more often- my 3 day cycle became a 2 day cycle... and then sleeping most nights; these days there is probably only on average one night a week I don't sleep at all. Usually when I don't sleep it's on a night I don't have coffee before I go to bed.

          Mentioned it on the phone to my mother one evening and she said that she had the same reaction to coffee. She doesn't sleep unless she has her coffee. I think there is some genetic link there somehow. Caffeine effects some of us differently with the opposite reaction.

      • I've had some caffeine dependence and I can tell you that the terrible headaches and sleepiness that come with withdrawal are no fun.

      • Even though caffeine is a fairly weak drug, this shows the power of addiction.

        Caffeine addicts need that morning cup 'o joe so badly that they'll tell the Grim Reaper to bugger off and wait until they've had their coffee. Apparently it works!

        Not everyone is addicted to caffeine. I also wonder how much of the impact of caffeine is psychological. (you expect coffee to wake you up, so it does).

        I love coffee, I dink a lot, but I find myself most unaffected by caffeine. It doesn't wake me up or give me energy- nor do I have any withdrawal symptoms, I sometimes go a week without coffee if I run out and can't find a good deal somewhere...

        I love to drink coffee right before bed, it's warm and calms me and helps me sleep.

        The only symptom I get from drinking coffee (besides yellowing teeth) is it makes me poop; that's probably not the caffeine though but something else in the coffee. Nothing gets me running to the bathroom in the morning like a cup of coffee. If I drink my coffee late, I poop late. If I drink it early, I poop early.

        People metabolize caffeine at different rates, based on genetics. I find myself completely unaffected by any form of caffeine except coffee, which seems to keep me going for a short spell of 10-30 minutes. I suspect that there is some other compound in coffee that slows my metabolism of the caffeine, but could be wrong. Either way, it’s quite possible that you metabolize caffeine at a very rapid pace and feel no effect. I could drink an energy drink with 2-3 times as much caffeine as coffee and fe

    • I admit to having an addiction to coffee, however, calling it an "addiction" is a bit of hyperbole. Last year, I decided to stop drinking coffee; I had a mild headache for a day, which in the afternoon I cured with an ibuprofen tablet. After that day, no problem. A couple months later (after smelling some exquisite espresso), I decided the benefits of not drinking coffee didn't outweigh that heavenly flavor. So, I went back to drinking it.

      Honestly, though, stopping again would be no great feat. It's not cra

      • I admit to having an addiction to coffee, however, calling it an "addiction" is a bit of hyperbole. Last year, I decided to stop drinking coffee; I had a mild headache for a day, which in the afternoon I cured with an ibuprofen tablet. After that day, no problem. A couple months later (after smelling some exquisite espresso), I decided the benefits of not drinking coffee didn't outweigh that heavenly flavor. So, I went back to drinking it.

        Honestly, though, stopping again would be no great feat. It's not crack cocaine or heroin.

        In one extended hospital stay where I could not eat (its fun being tube fed), I had the pleasure of caffeine withdrawal and well as withdrawal from the morphine they had given me the first few days. The morphine was worse, I was miserable. The caffeine headache was gone after day 3. The best part was starting all over again. I was drinking 4+ cups a day before, I used the opportunity to limit myself to 2 a day, which has since creeped up to 3 but holding steady there for 10 years.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by genfail ( 777943 )
      Hell, I chained that skinny bitch to the wall and made him my barista.

  • Black Coffee (Score:3)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @01:36PM (#56880582)

    When you put in Cream and Sugar in it. I expect you counteract many of its positive effects. Like with a lot of healthy foods, you should be ingesting it without other ingredients.

    • When you put in Cream and Sugar in it. I expect you counteract many of its positive effects.

      Sugar yes. Cream no.

      Fat gets a bad rap. It's carbs that you should avoid. Keep your blood sugar (and insulin) low. Don't feed the cancer trolls.

      • Fats are good, however we don't need too much of them, are still bad. It is still a caloric rich ingredient, which is why we like the taste, thus why we like cream and sugar added to coffee. We have evolved to want to eat the most caloric rich foods we can, this was because Calorie Rich foods were expensive, in terms of effort for calorie. It wasn't until we can process food with machines where we were able to ingest more calories then what we used.

        Sugar is nearly all calories, cream has a lot of calories

  • The latest findings come from a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine that included about a half-million people in England, Scotland and Wales. "We found that people who drank two to three cups per day had about a 12 percent lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers" during the decade-long study, says Erikka Loftfield, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute

    And what other factors did they control for? Age, income, working conditions, gender, diet, age, and many other things can affect longevity. This sounds like yet another idiotic study that found a correlation and jumps to the hasty generalization about its implications. The abstract [jamanetwork.com] provides no indication any effort was made to control for other possible causes. The real question is whether coffee is the proximal cause or if it is just a convenient correlation result due to other factors.

    I'm also curiou

    • Coffee drinkers tend to have jobs. Thus better income, more getting out of the house, etc. than the population as a whole.

    • provides no indication any effort was made to control for other possible causes

      Control for other causes among 500K participants over the entire breadth of the island of Great Britain? What do you want??

      • Well, 100% of the participants drive on the wrong side of the road so, yes, control for other causes would be preferred.

      • I agree - the study was to see if caffeine was the cause of longer life - turns out any coffee led to longer life. life style change have long ago been proven to extend life. read the study before commenting whoever said "...no indication..."

  • Decaf result is interesting (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rgmoore ( 133276 ) <glandauer@charter.net> on Monday July 02, 2018 @01:40PM (#56880638) Homepage

    The result showing decaf might have a similar effect is possibly the most interesting point in the study. It suggests that the effect is from something other than caffeine, which would mean there's more interesting chemicals in coffee.

    • The result showing decaf might have a similar effect is possibly the most interesting point in the study. It suggests that the effect is from something other than caffeine, which would mean there's more interesting chemicals in coffee.

      Coffee is extremely complex chemically. There is a lot to coffee besides just the caffeine.

      • The result showing decaf might have a similar effect is possibly the most interesting point in the study. It suggests that the effect is from something other than caffeine, which would mean there's more interesting chemicals in coffee.

        Coffee is extremely complex chemically. There is a lot to coffee besides just the caffeine.

        This. And I don't it's news that coffee can be good for you. [webmd.com] An excerpt from this page:

        Coffee is a rich source of disease-fighting antioxidants. And studies have shown that it may reduce cavities, boost athletic performance, improve moods, and stop headaches -- not to mention reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, liver cancer, gall stones, cirrhosis of the liver, and Parkinson's diseases.

    • Who the fuck knows. Maybe it's healthy to drink hot water.

  • I know when I was severely depressed I didn't have the energy to drive to the place I bought my beans, roast them myself, grind them, and use my french press. I just gave-up on making coffee for several months. The study probably has more to do with the motivation of the subjects rather than coffee.
    • Nice. Very tongue in cheek funny.

  • Risk of death (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @01:43PM (#56880678)

    "We found that people who drank two to three cups per day had about a 12 percent lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers"

    Nope. I think you'll find if you run the study long enough that everyone has a 100% risk of death no matter what they drink.

    • The way risk works is that it is computed as a probability of dying in the next time interval. A lower risk probability means that your expected lifespan increases.

  • What did the control group drink? (Score:3)

    by GodWasAnAlien ( 206300 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @02:14PM (#56880966)

    What did the control group drink?

    My guess is soda of some kind, even if this is not measured.

    Compare coffee drinkers with water drinkers (or at least drinks without sweeteners). Otherwise the test is not testing what you think it is testing.

    • Coffee is almost entirely water!
      But in all seriousness, I drink a lot of water once I'm done with my morning caffeine intake.

  • Unless those dragons out in the kitchen get me.
  • ... Perhaps office workers with less physically demanding jobs are more likely to drink coffee regularly compared to people working more strenuous professions.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rizole ( 666389 )
      Seems unlikely.
      Sitting at a desk all day has a negative impact on your health that exercise doesn't mitigate.

  • Decaf?! Abomination!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @03:02PM (#56881316) Journal
    Decaf also might make you live longer, but it is not worth living longer if you drink decaf. Of all the pointless things in the world, decaf takes the cake. Sponge cake. Layered with mascara pone cheese, tiramisu, but I digress.

    You must buy a plot in the Great Smokey mountains, and tend to your own coffee shrubs, that you grow in shade, you pick the berries, feed them to the civet cat you own, and take the excreted beans, roast them yourself, grind them just 3 minutes before you brew and brew it fresh using natural spring water that you fetch it yourself. That is coffee. If not, might as well drink starbucks.

  • Disclaimer (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tsolias ( 2813011 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @03:21PM (#56881456)

    The starbucks 1200 cal. coffee with all that artificial sweeteners and the sugar kills you.

  • I am a coffeee drinker, yet... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Framboise ( 521772 ) on Monday July 02, 2018 @03:30PM (#56881520)

    A correlation is far from proving causation. It could just be that coffee drinkers belong preferentially to a more wealthy group, which enjoys better chances of living longer.

    • Exactly. Do people who drink coffee live longer? Or do people who live longer drink coffee?

      Because it's more sensational, the article seems to have gone with the first hypothesis and run with it for no other reason that I can find.

    • I wonder if scientists use tools to account for confounding data.

  • I heard once about a test of trucks: On a nice sunny summer day they loaded few trucks in the morning with the same weight of sand, after which the trucks had to perform certain performance tests - one truck was outstanding.

    It turned out, that the test was sponsored by the winning truck manufacturer, all the trucks were loaded with wet sand and weighted immediately, however the winning truck was the last to be tested way in the afternoon of the very hot day.

    I heard lots of good things about coffee from ma

  • It's funny how other studies have completely the opposite conclusions... more of them have actually the opposite conclusions... guess which ones I trust more.....

  • Of course in California, coffee is required to have a sticker saying it causes cancer.

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