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Science

Coffee Drinking Linked To Lower Mortality Risk, New Study Finds (nytimes.com) 149

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
That morning cup of coffee may be linked to a lower risk of dying, researchers from a study published Monday in The Annals of Internal Medicine concluded. From a report: Those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day, even with a teaspoon of sugar, were up to 30 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who didn't drink coffee. Those who drank unsweetened coffee were 16 to 21 percent less likely to die during the study period, with those drinking about three cups per day having the lowest risk of death when compared with noncoffee drinkers.

Researchers analyzed coffee consumption data collected from the U.K. Biobank, a large medical database with health information from people across Britain. They analyzed demographic, lifestyle and dietary information collected from more than 170,000 people between the ages of 37 and 73 over a median follow-up period of seven years. The mortality risk remained lower for people who drank both decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee. The data was inconclusive for those who drank coffee with artificial sweeteners. "It's huge. There are very few things that reduce your mortality by 30 percent," said Dr. Christina Wee, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a deputy editor of the scientific journal where the study was published. Dr. Wee edited the study and published a corresponding editorial in the same journal.
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Coffee Drinking Linked To Lower Mortality Risk, New Study Finds More

Coffee Drinking Linked To Lower Mortality Risk, New Study Finds

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  • Well, crap... (Score:4, Funny)

    by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @09:59AM (#62586674)
    Drinking 1.5 - 3.5 cups a day is good for you but I’ve been drinking out of mugs all this time. Oh well...

    • A cup is a US liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces, or just under 240 mL

      • Re:Well, crap... (Score:5, Funny)

        by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:42AM (#62586880) Homepage Journal

        A pun is a form of humor in which equivocation is used to lure the reader into one interpretation of a word or phrase, and then surprise the reader by adding information that forces a change in interpretation of the formerly-read phrase (and usually spins a new narrative that includes some element of absurdity as part of the new interpretation).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Top-10 comments on Slashdot today. Well done sir/ma'am.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by shanen ( 462549 )

            But that isn't a proper definition of "pun". A pun is just a pronunciation game. The definition is for something else, though I'm not sure what. Lots of humor works that way, however.

            "He was arrested for transporting gulls across a staid lion for immortal porpoises."

            But Pastis is my favorite source of puns these years. https://www.gocomics.com/pearl... [gocomics.com]

      • The standard cup measure for ordinary American coffee is 6 ounces, not 8. I realize that what most people call "coffee" now is essentially what one would get by microwaving scoops of coffee ice cream, piled with foam and put into a beverage size-contest single use cup.
      • Read your coffee maker manual. Mr Coffee specifically states in the Owners Manual that a cup of Mr Coffee is 5 fluid ounces. Your 12 cup coffee maker only holds 60 ounces. I think the whole company belongs in prison.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dryeo ( 100693 )

        I thought everyone knew a cup was a hair over 284 ml, DDG says 284.13064262468 . Maybe you're American with only 128 fl oz to a gallon instead of the correct 160 fl oz to a gallon (10 pounds of water at 50F is/was the definition of a gallon)
        This is a UK study so they are going to use a real cup

    • A 'standard cup' of coffee used to be 6oz, but is now declared, mostly, to be 8oz. And we now have claimed standards for espresso, cappuccino, and latte 'cups'.

      As an American, I mostly drink as much as I care to. Of course coffee reduces mortality and extends lifespan, if you love coffee, you love life.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )

        if you love coffee, you love life

        I think this has more to do with it than the coffee itself. Non-coffee drinkers just don't have as much to look forward to every morning.

        • Non-coffee drinkers just don't have as much to look forward to every morning.

          No, we get to look forward to you folks telling us how many cups of coffee you drink every day, what type of coffee it is, how to make it, and anything else coffee related. You're like the vegans of drinks.

          You remind us of this character [fandom.com].If you saw the anime, you'll know what I mean.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Pascoea ( 968200 )
            Some of us just shut up and drink our coffee. (I literally couldn't tell you what kind of coffee I'm drinking right now.) We generally hate coffee snobs too. Kinda like how a lot of vegetarians hate vegans.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by doom ( 14564 )

              We generally hate coffee snobs too.

              Yes, and one of the things I love to geek out about is how much I hate the coffee snobs that ruined the quality of coffee circa the late nineties in San Francisco, when Blue Butt and Foul Barrell became the latest thing, and suddenly the trend everywhere was for a style of dark roast that was dark beyond dark and completely corrupted the meaning of "dark roast" (they should've called it something else, like "sewage") a single sip of this stuff coats the inside of your sk

            • Kinda like how a lot of vegetarians hate vegans.

              Indeed. I am a vegetarian, and my daughter is a vegan. I get up early to pour milk into my tea so I don't have to listen to her berate me about the evils of dairy farming. She is in college now, and I pay out-of-state tuition so she will be further away.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Thud457 ( 234763 )
            also, note subject inherited from parent post...

            paraphrasing,

            you insufferable coffee snobs!

            If it's not shat out of cat [millilitre.my], you don't know where it's at...
            wait, no, don't do that. it's an expensive waste of money and probably animal abuse [millilitre.my] to boot.

        • I gave up caffeine a few months ago. It turns out mornings are so much easier and fun now; I can just get up and go! Before that, apparently it was reversing caffeine withdrawal that made coffee or tea make the mornings seem good.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by splutty ( 43475 )

      Well. I typed something funny here, but Slashdot's retarded "Lameness Filter" thought it looked like ascii art. Which was the point, stupidass filter.

    • I liked the FP and since it was modded funny I'll share this recent coffee-related photo. What caught my eye was the Subject poster in the middle of the picture. https://photos.app.goo.gl/egCX... [app.goo.gl] is supposed to be a safe way to share it. I can't actually describe the venue... Kind of a manga artists' coffee shop? But I doubt there are still any artists to be found around there these years.

    • Are you drinking a mega-pint? =P

  • Is it? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jacamoo ( 7027866 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:03AM (#62586698)
    Perhaps it's not drinking the coffee that counts, but 1. Being able to afford several coffees a day 2. Not drinking fizzy drinks 3. Taking a break 2 times a day (excluding the brekkie coffee) Which makes the difference?
    • I think you're probably more on the nose than blaming coffee directly. The fact that they forego some other drink, and indeed sugar, may have more to do with it than the coffee. The coffee could just be a likely common trait between people who tend to have healthier diets anyway. Especially black coffee. (Certainly that itself isn't' enough to prove or imply anything concrete, but the demonstrated choice of an alternative to the McFlurry and a Venti SugarLatteOFatNFluff is certainly worth looking into.)

      • The coffee result seems to be well replicated by other researchers, but I am dubious about the sugar result (the claim was that coffee with sugar shows more health benefit that coffee without (for an average sugar content of one teaspoon).)

        My suggestion on this is that people who use artificial sweetener rather than sugar are, in general, doing so because they are dieting, and they are dieting because they are overweight. So "do you put sugar in your coffee?" is a proxy for "are you overweight?"

        • And what do you have to say about those of us who are either Type I diabetic or LADA and are using artificial sweeteners to help control our conditions?

          • using artificial sweeteners to help control our conditions?

            Do they, though? Isn't there evidence that artificial sweeteners produce similar reactions in the body to sugars?

            • Certainly not enough evidence to make that conclusion.
            • I don't know, that's why I'm asking. Personally, I drink a twelve ounce mug of coffee every morning with a tablespoon of raw sugar and half and half, but that's the only thing I drink with real sugar in it all day. I need to have 45 to 60 grams of carbs at each meal, and the 15 in the sugar is part of my breakfast carbs. I must be doing something right, as my last two A1c readings were both 7.0, which is just about perfect, and that's not easy to do when you're 72.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fazig ( 2909523 )
          Yeah, I'd like to see if they accounted for pre-existing health conditions like diabetes.
          After all this has been a well known potential bias for researching the health impact of artificial sweeteners in the past already, which needs to be accounted for in some way.

          At least the summary does not provide that information but only states

          They analyzed demographic, lifestyle and dietary information collected from more than 170,000 people between the ages of 37 and 73 over a median follow-up period of seven yea

        • So "do you put sugar in your coffee?" is a proxy for "are you overweight?"

          Maybe

          I wonder if a better approach might be to add the question: "do you use artificial sweetener in your coffee?" I suspect that the use of artificial sweeteners might be a better proxy for being overweight (or diabetic).

          I have not put sugar or any sweetener in tea of coffee since childhood. It wasn't the desire to lose weight that made me drop the sugar.

      • I think you're probably more on the nose than blaming coffee directly. The fact that they forego some other drink, and indeed sugar, may have more to do with it than the coffee. The coffee could just be a likely common trait between people who tend to have healthier diets anyway. Especially black coffee. (Certainly that itself isn't' enough to prove or imply anything concrete, but the demonstrated choice of an alternative to the McFlurry and a Venti SugarLatteOFatNFluff is certainly worth looking into.)

        I

        • I used to be the same, until my brother made fun of me, telling me intellectuals don't put sugar in their coffee (that happened long ago, when I aspired to be an intellectual rather than an engineer). I stopped adding sugar, and I got used to the bitter taste.

          I tried coffee with sugar again later but I found I hated it now - and have been drinking it black ever since.

      • The obvious point here is that people who don't drink coffee CHOSE not to drink coffee. It's cheap, ubiquitous, and customary. So why are you not drinking coffee?

        There are any number of reasons, but they all mark you as an outlier in some way. You'll probably find the same health benefit of knowing how to drive in Ohio, liking baseball in the US, soccer in Spain, etc. It's self-selection.

        I think what this really points to is the incredible destructiveness of frappachinos/lattes/Starbucks in general. Th

    • I will point out that multiple other studies have come to similar conclusions about health benefits of coffee.
      https://www.npr.org/sections/t... [npr.org]
      http://www.medicalnewstoday.co... [medicalnewstoday.com]
      https://www.nytimes.com/2015/0... [nytimes.com]
      http://www.sciencedaily.com/re... [sciencedaily.com]
      http://time.com/4116129/coffee... [time.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by doom ( 14564 )

        Yes, exactly. Some of the studies I've read about have been massive, cross-cultural studies of tens of thousands of people in different countries, and they keep finding correlations between lifespan and coffee drinking, to the extent that the people wisely pointing out that correlation and causation aren't the same start looking ridiculous.

    • That's going to be my guess. I'd love if there proved to be a causative relationship, since I'm a heavy coffee drinker, but, as best I can tell, (a) causation has not been demonstrated, and (b) 30% difference in mortality is a HUGE deal.
      • I'm a heavy coffee drinker (black coffee) too but I have a hard time believing anything to do with this. Mortality rate over a particular time period, compared to what? Who thinks "Gee, I'm going to go see if coffee can save your life, because if it can then..." what people will drink more coffee? We'll then live in a better world? I don't know. This seems like "Gee, I don't know what to do for my Graduate thesis, maybe Folgers will sponsor me."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xorbe ( 249648 )

      Exactly, good that coffee isn't killing people. What are the other people drinking that we should avoid? It's probably the obvious answer (sugar).

    • Perhaps. But even poor people can afford to drink coffee, so if there is a connection to income level, the threshold is so low that people who can't afford coffee are indeed likely to have many health issues, and the portion of the population that can't afford coffee is small. Even homeless people are often seen drinking coffee (or other drinks that cost even more).

      It would be interesting to control for fizzy drinks.

      Who "takes a break" to drink coffee? Most of us drink while we work.

    • Came here to say that. And I'll focus on your third point of simply taking a mindful break to relax. I enjoy pausing my work-day in the middle, and spending 15 minutes to make a great cup of coffee (syphon), then spending 20 minutes drinking it -- watching the oils dance on the surface in the sunlight.

  • Hands off my coffee (Score:5, Funny)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:05AM (#62586702) Journal

    I don't know if it makes me live longer, but if you take away my coffee, I guarantee it's going to have a negative impact on the mortality of people around me.

  • Correlation, causation and all that... Any hints about the true causes? Maybe because people who drink coffee also do something else/act in a certain way?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MagicM ( 85041 )

      People who are close to death don't drink coffee. They drink cheap whiskey instead.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RobinH ( 124750 )
      Probably means less soda pop, but it's surprising to me that unsweetened isn't as good as sweetened.

    • They don't fall asleep while driving?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dvice ( 6309704 )

      My father died rather young, as did his father. Common thing with me and my father was/is that neither of us drink coffee. I simply hate the taste of it.

      So one reason could be that people who live longer, like the taste of coffee.

    • Bingo! #1 killer of old people is retirement (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Somervillain ( 4719341 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:56AM (#62586944)

      Correlation, causation and all that... Any hints about the true causes? Maybe because people who drink coffee also do something else/act in a certain way?

      That was my first thought. I drink coffee because I have a purpose. I have to get up and get shit done. I love the line from Kill Bill "They say the number one killer of old people is retirement. People got a job to do, they tend to live a little longer so they can do it."

      As another poster said, it also keeps me from veering off the road...makes me more cautious when crossing the street or even walking down the steps.

      However, I will wager the main actual cause is lifestyle. Boredom kills. Lack of purpose kills. People with purpose...they're stubborn fuckers. They tend to live much longer than they every should have. For me, and most coffee nuts I know, there are not enough hours in the day. I am never bored. There are simply too many things I need to get done and not enough time to do them all (kids, work, staying fit, interests, things to watch, games to play). Coffee really helps me stay above water.

      But regardless of my perspective, I think not consuming caffeine in any manner is a very distinctive lifestyle, at least for Americans. We love our coffee. I think lifestyle differences are much more likely to be the reason than the coffee itself.

    • Correlation, causation and all that... Any hints about the true causes? Maybe because people who drink coffee also do something else/act in a certain way?

      Other studies I've read that have shown similar correlations have speculated that the strong antioxidants in coffee may be buffering people from inflammation, which is increasingly suspected in a host of diseases. There have even been studies that have found that heavy alcohol consumers that also drink coffee have lower risks of liver diseases... which again, could be due to antioxidants countering some of the more harmful compounds created as a byproduct of alcohol being broken down in the liver.

      It seems

  • I love that coffee's good for me again (Score:3)

    by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:07AM (#62586714)

    I drink quite a lot of black coffee, so this study is good news for me from a pure survival perspective. On the other hand, I drink quite a lot of black coffee...enough to notice that it's a potent diuretic. If I hadn't already had experience in this area, I'd have clued in when I saw that the study was edited by Doctor Wee.

  • I hit the NY Times paywall. Does the study eliminate the possible correlation that people who drink coffee might just be more likely to be active and living a healthy lifestyle, and that it's not actually the coffee having a physiological benefit?

  • coffee coffee coffee

  • The study was in the UK. How do they know that drinking coffee is good for you? Maybe it's really that drinking tea is bad for you and their control group is just doing themselves in.

  • simple psychological explanation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:17AM (#62586778) Homepage Journal

    Having a reason to live every morning helps lower mortality. Switch to a coffee free, gluten free, and vegan diet and you won't be looking forward to waking up.

    • A coffee free, gluten free, and vegan diet doesn't make you live longer. It just feels longer.

      As the old joke goes:
      Man: Doctor, will I live to be 100 years old?
      Dr.: Do you stay up late partying, drinking, and chasing women?
      Man; No, never.
      Dr.: Then why the heck would you want to live to be 100?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eth1 ( 94901 )

      Having a reason to live every morning helps lower mortality. Switch to a coffee free, gluten free, and vegan diet and you won't be looking forward to waking up.

      I have a feeling it's more because coffee takes the place of more unhealthy options like energy drinks, soda, and other snacks.

  • That does it (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @10:19AM (#62586786)

    I'm switching from Python back to Java.

    • Dialing the wayback to when Kim Polese was the cover person for every business magazine and Jean-Louis Gasbag kept goose-honking "ze beens".

  • I've seen studies like this before, and I always wonder if they controlled for hot water. I have this idea that maybe a cup or two of hot water - with or without coffee in it - gets the bowels moving, which results in less stress on the heart and other organs throughout the day.

    • I'd say that the study is meaningless unless it controls for the quantity of active coffee ingredients in a cup.
      Are we talking about a cup of weak coffee, or a mug full of concentrated espresso?

      I doubt that either of those two would have the same health benefits that the study reports. Yet both would count as being coffee.

  • I never let blood concentration in my caffeine system to go above a threshold. So, I must be immortal, right?

  • I like how they see a statistical correlation, but then report it as "linked". Not misrepresented at all.

  • Those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day, even with a teaspoon of sugar, were up to 30 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who didn't drink coffee

    I wonder what kind of testing they submitted the volunteers to during the study period so to measure how much less they were likely to die? Did they put them in a cage with a black bear and see how many of them would escape unmauled? I would guess those who drink coffee are a little bit more alert for bears than those who don't.

  • ...one hundred percent, eventually.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Are you sure? I'm haven't died yet so there is no proof yet that I'm not immortal.
  • Sorry to inform you but we are all going to die. This risk of that happening cannot be reduced, not matter how much coffee you drink.

  • My father lived to be 89 and according to him, he drank coffee every day since he was 5. In his adulthood he'd drink coffee clear up till late at night, it always made me wonder how he could sleep.

    Oh wait, he also started smoking when he was 11 and died of advanced COPD.

    Dammit, the coffee didn't protect him!

  • It's possible that people with self-destructive lifestyles are less likely to drink that much coffee.

  • Makes me happy (Score:4, Funny)

    by InterGuru ( 50986 ) <interguru AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday June 02, 2022 @11:22AM (#62587072)
    It gives me grounds for celebration.

  • ...my wife started to nag me about drinking coffee too much.

  • ...we have to smell coffee in the morning ? No more napalm [youtube.com] ?!?

  • Meh (Score:2)

    by ukoda ( 537183 )
    Sounds great, but I'm sure there will soon be a new new report about how coffee causes cancer. I'm sure there will be something about mice in a lab but I will instead be wonder about how mice can pick up the mugs. Oh well, I can ponder over the issue while I have another cup of coffee.

  • People drinking coffee are less likely to live in regions where life expectancy is around 28.
    They have chosen their parents carefully.

  • Nevermind that I can't even have full-strength coffee anymore because my body is so fast processing it, that I go into withdrawl in 3 hours.
  • Study is clearly flawed since this is obviously correlation not causation. Smart people with better bodies who are better in bed like drinking multiple cups of coffee per day but it is not coffee that bestows their natural gifts!

  • Lower mortality risk for office mates as well! (Score:3)

    by Babel-17 ( 1087541 ) on Thursday June 02, 2022 @08:15PM (#62588576)

    The coffee must flow!

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