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NIH Study Finds That Coffee Drinkers Have Lower Risk of Death

Posted by timothy on from the but-only-in-a-given-time-period dept.

parallel_prankster writes "Older adults who drank coffee — caffeinated or decaffeinated — had a lower risk of death [full paper is paywalled, at the New England Journal of Medicine] overall than others who did not drink coffee, according to a study by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and AARP. 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. These results from a large study of older adults were observed after adjustment for the effects of other risk factors on mortality, such as smoking and alcohol consumption. They also found that the association between coffee and 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. Researchers caution, however, that they can't be sure whether these associations mean that drinking coffee actually makes people live longer."

7 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Already debunked. by SirGarlon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So what you're saying is that any study whose result disagrees with your preconceptions must be garbage.

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
  2. Risk of Death by djbckr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not sure I understand. My risk of dying decreases with coffee? Is this the new fountain of youth?

  3. Re:My prof dranks coffee like water by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't see how this is "good" for you and reduces risk of death.

    And yet, the data says it is. This is why we do science, because not everything is obvious, and sometimes tests come back with unexpected results. That's how we learn things.

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    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  4. Re:I kinda thought risk of death... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh, Jesus H. Christ. This comment comes up on every story dealing with mortality risk, and it's getting kind of old. Look, the hazard rate function is not that hard to understand. Educate yourself instead of making the same worn-out joke over and over again, okay?

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    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  5. Re:Statistics, statistics... by timeOday · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Sounds kind of sensible, except...

    These results from a large study of older adults were observed after adjustment for the effects of other risk factors on mortality, such as smoking and alcohol consumption.

    So your explanation would be that people growing old and sick tend to give up coffee, but keep smoking and drinking alcohol? I guess it's possible, but I it's not obvious to me why that would be.

  6. Key components by jones_supa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The study made me think whether some other drink would work as well (or better)? Fruit juice, cocoa, tea, even plain water? What's the secret component(s)?

    As the text also notes:

    "The mechanism by which coffee protects against risk of death — if indeed the finding reflects a causal relationship — is not clear, because coffee contains more than 1,000 compounds that might potentially affect health," said Freedman.

    Coffee is known to be rich in antioxidants, so that could be one sporadic blind guess. But yeah.

  7. Their findings can also be stated as... by hsthompson69 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People who live longer have a higher risk of being coffee drinkers.

    Correlation is not causality.