Can drinking coffee lower your risk of death?

Older adults who drank coffee — caffeinated or decaffeinated — had a lower risk of death overall than others who did not drink coffee, according a study by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and AARP.

Neal Freedman, Ph.D., Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI, lead the study, which examined the association between coffee drinking and risk of death in 400,000 U.S. men and women ages 50 to 71.

"Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in America, but the association between coffee consumption and risk of death has been unclear,” said Freedman. “We found coffee consumption to be associated with lower risk of death overall, and of death from a number of different causes." 

Coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections, although the association was not seen for cancer.

Researchers caution that they can't be sure whether these associations mean that drinking coffee actually makes people live longer.

However, the research suggests that the reduction in risk of death increased with the amount of coffee consumed. Relative to men and women who did not drink coffee, those who consumed three or more cups of coffee per day had approximately a 10 percent lower risk of death.

"Although we cannot infer a causal relationship between coffee drinking and lower risk of death, we believe these results do provide some reassurance that coffee drinking does not adversely affect health," said Freeman.

Coffee drinking was not associated with cancer mortality among women, but there was a slight and only marginally statistically significant association of heavier coffee intake with increased risk of cancer death among men.