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Coffee and Tea Are Shockingly Good at Keeping You Healthy
Both beverages, especially in large amounts, are linked to better health and longer life
New research adds a cup or two of good news to a pot of mounting evidence indicating that both coffee and tea — and apparently lots of it — can help people live longer, healthier lives. There’s just one catch: The evidence suggests you’ll want to eat well and exercise, too. Caffeinated drinks won’t make up for copious doughnuts and couch time.
In several past studies, coffee consumption has been linked to a lower risk for type 2 diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease. A study last month tied consumption of several daily cups of coffee to a 16% lower risk of death from prostate cancer. People who drink tea (green or black) have been found to live longer, too, and have lower odds of heart disease and other deadly illnesses.
“There is not yet enough clear evidence to recommend increasing coffee consumption to decrease the risk of heart disease with the same strength and certainty as stopping smoking, losing weight, or exercising.”
Now a study suggests drinking one or more cups of caffeinated coffee per day can reduce the risk of heart failure. The new finding, published February 9 in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation: Heart Failure, is based on 10 years of data on 21,000 U.S. adults from three separate research projects. Two of the data sets reveal that the risk of heart failure declined between 5% and 12% per cup of coffee compared with drinking none. The third indicated no difference based on drinking just one cup per day, but the risk of heart failure dropped 30% for those who enjoyed two or more on a daily basis.
Some older research had suggested coffee might be bad for the heart. But it often failed to take into account whether coffee drinkers smoked or drank alcohol in excess. A host of newer studies, including this latest one, factor those things in and debunk that notion, says study leader David Kao, MD, assistant professor of cardiology and medical director at the Colorado Center for…
