Drink coffee: Keep up to eight cups a day in good health

Whether in the morning, at the office or after dinner, coffee is simply one of them for the Germans. And not too short, because men drink on average 3.6 cups of coffee a day, women 3.2 cups. A study conducted with British Biobank participants showed that six to eight cups a day could prolong life.

UK Biobank is a database that provides information on lifestyle effects from 2006 to 2030 Drugs, environmental influences or a diet are collected. It has nine million volunteers, 500,000 of whom participated in the study of coffee.

Coffee extends life – with and without caffeine

According to data from the last ten years, the cancer researcher Erikka Loftfield of the National Cancer Institute In the United States, people who have been drinking six to eight cups a day got the best results. The probability of dying from a disease over a ten-year period was 16 percent lower than that of subjects who did not drink coffee. A total of 498,134 middle-aged adults were interviewed – 14,225 of them died in ten years.

Obviously, this is not caffeine – decaffeinated coffee has also increased life expectancy. Also, the quality and the preparation were not crucial because the soluble coffee had the same effect. Even the metabolism does not matter, according to the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine

What matters are the "non-caffeinated components" of coffee

A link between the coffee consumption and long-term health risks. Circulatory, respiratory and cancer could not detect the researchers. By badyzing the participants' genetic data, they identified the four genetic variants that influence the metabolism of caffeine and how the body breaks down caffeine. Previous studies have suggested that people with these gene variants have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Loftfield did not find it.

For her, the emphasis is on the importance of the "non-caffeinated ingredients" of coffee. Coffee contains more than 1,000 chemical compounds, including antioxidants that protect cells from damage, Loftfield said. Other studies have shown that substances inhibit inflammation and affect the budget of insulin, which could reduce the development of diabetes. However, research on the potential effect of life extension should still be pursued

Coffee drinkers can now enjoy even more of the drink

It is unclear exactly how coffee reduces the risk of death. Erikka Loftfield pointed out that his results were based on observations and not on causality. "Nevertheless, the results provide further evidence that coffee consumption can be part of a healthy diet, which is something that all those who love coffee are welcome, and you can enjoy it." Loftfield found similar results in 2015 in a small study of 90,000 Americans

The positive effects of coffee in the fight against heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes and depression have been known for some time. It stimulates, blood vessels dilate, heart rate increases and circulation of all organs improves. In addition, caffeine affects respiration and bronchial vessels are hypertrophied.