Have another cup of coffee: it could save your life, claims study

Two to five cups, one cup per day, or less than one cup per day reduced early death rates by 12, eight and six per cent, respectively. Photo / Getty Images

Drinking at least six cups of coffee every day could decrease your risks of early death, a new study has revealed.

Researchers say that those who drink six or seven cups of coffee per day are 16 per cent less likely to die from any disease over a 10-year period than those who never have a cup of Joe.

Coffee has long been linked with combating heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes and depression.

The researchers, who hail from various institutions including the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health, say they hope their findings provide further reassurance that coffee can be part of a healthy diet.

For the study, the team tracked almost 500,000 Britons between ages 38 and 73 from 2006 to 2016.

The researchers asked them how many cups of coffee they drank per day, including the type: decaffeinated, ground or instant.

The researchers, who published their results in JAMA on Monday, found that those whose coffee intake was high fared the best.

Those who drank eight cups or more per day saw their death rates cut by 14 per cent, and it was raised to 16 per cent among those who drank six to seven cups.

The protective effect was also seen among moderate and light coffee drinkers - but to a lesser degree.

Two to five cups, one cup per day, or less than one cup per day reduced early death rates by 12, eight and six per cent, respectively.

According to lead author Dr Erikka Loftfield, a cancer epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, the results held true whether the type of coffee drank was ground, instant or decaffeinated.

The FDA has suggested that Americans consume no more than 400mg of caffeine, or four cups of coffee, per day.

However, in 2015, the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report concluded that moderate coffee consumption of five cups per day can be a part of a healthy diet.

Ingesting too much caffeine can result in anxiety, dizziness, upset stomach, a fast heartbeat and even muscle tremors.

But previous studies conducted in the US, Europe and Asia have found a consistent link between coffee drinking and reduced deaths from all causes including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's disease and liver, bowel and womb cancer.

Additionally, caffeine has been shown to be abundant in antioxidants which reduce inflammation and boost both lung function and sensitivity to the glucose-controlling hormone insulin.

:Coffee drinking was inversely associated with mortality, including among those drinking eight or more cups per day," said Dr Loftfield.

"These findings suggest the importance of non-caffeine constituents in the coffee-mortality association and provide further reassurance that coffee drinking can be a part of a healthy diet."

In 2017, a study was conducted by the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California on more than 90,000 Americans and their coffee habits.

The researchers found those who drank three cups per day lowered their risk of early death by 18 per cent while those who drank one cup per day lowered their risk by 12 percent.