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Excess Coffee May Be Linked To Early Death
Mr.Intel writes "Should we believe it? Those of us under 55 who drink a lot of coffee – more than four cups per day – may be at greater risk of an early death. And not just death from heart problems, but death from all causes. The study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings (abstract), followed people for almost two decades, and found that in both sexes, younger people were more likely to die of anything than people who drank less."
Must be spinning in his grave ... oh wait...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Good thing they invented Redbull
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
He died suddenly shortly after submitting this article.
In lieu of flowers, contributions can be sent directly to the EFF.
if you are the kind of person who drinks that much coffee...
anyway it's not clear that coffee is the problem
Why would you even want that?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Possible correlation to people who drink a lot of coffee and people who work crazy hours/lots of stress/not much sleep/eat poorly/etc..
My excessive coffee drinking is a symptom of my shitty lifestyle.
I only started drinking coffee about 4-5 years ago because there was a great Saeco machine at work. Now I have my own machine at home and I easily drink 5-6 espressos a day. It has no effect on me I can drink them all in a row and go to bed. Sometimes I wonder if there isn't something wrong with the machine.
Death from all causes is the leading causes of death for people under 55.
I turn 55 next month and drink insanely strong coffee and have been doing so since I was 15. Just sayin'.
home !=
...and doubt I ever have drunk 53 cups of coffee as I am English, and TEA is the way. So bring on 55 - (forget the fags I smoke and Beer I drink ;) )
This seems like it might be a single element that has little to do with the coffee itself. Despite the study's findings, this is far from a guarantee that the coffee itself was the cause. It could well be that dying and coffee are both attributable to somethign else they had in common. Perhaps it would be better to look at what the common thread between the coffee drinkers studied. especially the ones who died.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
.. of a lower incidence of prostrate cancer in anyone drinking more of anything, including coffee? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23702886
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
This is just because the coffee drinkers are living life faster than you "normals."
I only scanned TFA, and didn't see it. My guess is it's probably because people who drink 4+ cups of coffee also have other habits that are bad for their health. I typically drink 3 cups a day, but it wasn't unusual for me to drink a whole pot a day when I was younger. I also ate lots of junk food, was overweight and didn't exercise on a regular basis, and would get maybe 4 hours of sleep a night. I'm still overweight, but I've greatly reduced my junk food consumption & exercise on a regular basis now and get 6-7 hours of sleep a night, so I need less caffeine to make it through the day.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Sometimes they say coffee is beneficial and helpful.
Or even sometimes they say it actually lowers the risk of death.
Other times they say it's horrible and should be avoided.
Can you please make up your minds already? |:
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
That was true before the study.
Every good junk scientist knows that correlation always equals causality. I am a member of the junk scientists world club. We meet every year. Everyone flys to the west to get to our meeting so that no one will end up flying off the end of the earth. Correlation equals causality is thesis of every speach. So it can't be that people addicted to coffee might be more likely to be addicted to something else as well. If coffee is correlated to death then coffee must cause death!
As a guy who can drink 2L of coffee a day that is scary.
But, they are all four-shot latte's, so I'm safe.
Did they mean 4 cups as in 4 250ml units of coffee... or 4 cups as in 4 actual sized coffees available at retailers that are generally 3 measured cups for the large or extra large sizes that seem so popular?
They make this claim in the first paragraph and then spend the next four pages pointing out that they didn't check lifestyle, didn't distinguish caffeinated and decaff and that half a dozen other studies have shown health benefits of drinking coffee, and conclude by saying that health experts are not putting coffee on any lists for lack of hard evidence.
Virtually serving coffee
After so many studies lately that talk about the benefits of drinking at least two cups of coffee a day, it's nice to see a study come out that not only seems to refute this but assaults common sense. Drink a lot of coffee? Then you're more likely to die in an industrial accident. Then you're more likely to die in a shooting. Then you're more likely to did in an airplane crash! Drink a lot of coffee and your odor will apparently provoke more deadly shark attacks. Drink a lot of coffee and you're more likely to die in your sleep. Drink a lot of coffee and you're more likely to die of old age. Of course you should believe it, this was a study done by professionals and you know how honest and reputable such research always is.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It tastes like fucking shit, so it isn't surprising. Mother Nature tries to warn you. The fact that it tastes like a dead fetus dredged through elephant shit and then drenched in donkey semen should be a sign we shouldn't drink it.
This study tells you nothing useful. How much more confounded can you be than with the lifestyle choices that associate with coffee drinking?
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
How frequently do Coffee Shops blow up? That might correlate more random deaths with heavy coffee drinkers
Those who don't drink coffee are more likely to die in their sleep.
More music, fewer hits
Excess leads to death. As if, yakknow, we all didn't know this already.
The future dead will be crawling out of their casket seeking for more coffee as it's a natural bodily instinct for them so their bodies can still function without their brain.
TFA says, "...may be at greater risk of an early death. And not just death from heart problems, but death from all causes..."
This is obviously because people who drink more than four cups of coffee a day are awake and actually doing things. People who don't are sleeping their lives away, all safe and tucked away in bed. And except for that poor bastard in Florida who got eaten by the sink hole, remarkably few healthy people die while they're peacefully snoring away in their own bed.
QE-frickin'-D.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Fuck that - life without coffee isn't really life, amiright?
May as well ask me to give up bacon.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It's really weird that there is no breakup of the causes of death. The study (linked in the article) says 32% of the deaths were from heart disease. In the study, the graph measuring the correlation between coffee drinking and incidence of heart disease cannot be accessed.
This makes it really hard to derive any meaning out of the study. Does drinking excessive coffee make it more likely that you'll walk into a manhole, or to have car accidents?
Possible correlation to people who drink a lot of coffee and people who work crazy hours/lots of stress/not much sleep/eat poorly/etc..
My excessive coffee drinking is a symptom of my shitty lifestyle.
There probably is a strong correlation between younger people who drink a lot of coffee and have an unhealthy lifestyle. Supposedly the researcher corrected for smoking but not for things like too little sleep, too much stress, etc. (Been there. Done that.) If that describes you and you survive into your 50s, chances are that your lifestyle gets healthier but you still have the coffee habit and then the health benefits of coffee consumption kick in. (There now. Doing that.)
I'm down to only about 5 mugs a day which is better than when I was an undergrad (mid 1970s) and drinking 10 to 15 mugs a day.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Nobody here having the trait being studied (i.e. drinking more than four cups of coffee a day) will actually read TFA. So those making the usual uninformed rants about the study methodology will all be on the same side of the debate :)
Two decades or so ago, I read an article in Scientific American that bascially said biological organs have a maximum "cycle duty". In other words, humming-bird hearts and human hearts get pretty much same number of beats before they wear out, but since their hearts beat 1260 times a minute instead of 70, they only live 5 years instead of 90.
Now, this is clearly a simplistic view of anatomy. However, if he's onto something, then you'd expect people who regularly raise their heart rates (eg: with large daily caffine intakes), to live a bit shorter lives than everyone else on average.
"Correlation does not imply causation."
But, it seems our whole "scientific" (and I am using that term very loosely at this point) process revolves around that easy-to-fall-for fallacy.
Show me the causal relationship between "excess coffee" and "early death," and I'll give a shit about your study.
As soon as I read the headline, I was reminded of an earlier slashdot article from last year.
In the linked NIH study, drinking 3 or more cups of coffee a day was associated with a lower risk of death. From all causes. This study is probably a follow up to the earlier study, and they came to the opposite conclusion.
Conclusion: not enough studies to change your daily habits one way or another. Obligatory xkcd
Since there is no legal "standard" coffee cup does the study define a cup? Could be anywhere from 5 ounces to 8 oz.
Bad for those under 55 years old, huh?
So, you're saying I only have to survive 4 more years until it starts being good for me?
Excess of anything can kill you, cause early death, generally do bad things.
Coffee drinkers studied by Mayo Clinic scientists have a greater chance of dying than NIH coffee drinkers.
It's supposed to be completely automatic, but actually you have to press this button.
The hell you ...
ACK
GURGLE
(sip) It must be (sip) bad science (sip) or something (sip).
"has been linked to an early d....ACK, GAG" (thud).
"younger people were more likely to die of anything than people who drank less." ???
"If a and b or correlated"
*facepalm* Someone slap me, I must need more coffee!
Free Martian Whores!
When I was in university they had this environmental thing: buy a plastic 'enviro-mug' for about $5, and they donate it to the environment, and then you can get that 22 ounce thing filled for the entire year for the price of a medium. I said "sign me up!" I would make one before class at home, then have another at university, then make another when I got home. If it was early enough, I would switch to coca-cola (mid afternoon to 6:00 pm depending on the semester). So 66 ounces per day, followed by coke. Is that an issue? Does that count as 'just 3 cups per day?'
When Global Cooling seems imminent, they will determine that coffee reduces the incidences of heart attacks, cancer and stupid posts on Slashdot.
There's been so freaking many "studies" over the decades announed on the tv, radio, and in newspapers as well as magazines saying coffee is good for you, then entirely bad, then good again and bad again. It's like scientists can't make up their minds as to whether it's finally good for you or not. Must be the coffee growers paying off the scientists just like big tobacco made them off for years to deny that smoking cigarettes was bad for you.
It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is drinking more than four cups of coffee per day.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD coffee consumption has risen yet again, now over more than 4 cups a day. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has drunk more coffee, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is drinking pots of coffee every day.
You don't need to be a Juan Valdez to predict *BSD's future. The kettle is on the stove: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is drinking too much coffee. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to drink coffee. Coffee flows like a river of coffee.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having drunk more than a pot a day for years. The unwashed cups on the desks of long time FreeBSD developers only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is drinking coffee.
Fact: *BSD drinks excessive amounts of coffee.
John
just look at it.
over 55 who can drink all the coffee we want! Har, har!
Drink up, mofos! Yer next swig may be your last! Aaaargh!
Maybe you didn't realize it; but you've given us a rather succinct re-telling of the Mexican fisherman story
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I'm a 48-year old card-carrying member of the Serious Coffee Drinkers of America. I drink my first four cups of coffee before I leave for work in the morning. My coffee cup at work is actually a travel mug, and it's never empty or contain cold coffee. I drink a full pot of coffee between dinner and bedtime. Most workdays, I drink 20-30 cups of coffee, easily. I cut back to only 10 cups or so per day on the weekends.
I just had a full health checkup. I have no -- zero, none, nada -- health problems. Sure, my knees are starting to ache and I now wear glasses to read, but as far cholesterol, glucose levels, triglycerides, etc. goes, I'm well within the normal range. My blood pressure was 106/70 and my resting pulse was 54.
Maybe I'll be one of those old guys that eats and drinks whatever he wants and lives to 110. Maybe coffee is the reason.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings, I laugh in your general direction.
I'm really surprised I haven't seen someone call them out on this...
Are people who drink "excess" (whatever that means...) coffee more likely to die of suffocation? drowning? car accidents? knife fights?
I mean really...
Life is gonna kill you.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Fresh fruits & veggies, whole grains, no smoking or chewing tobacco, eating meat sparingly
That actually sounds like the lifestyle of most of the Third World.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Ok first, even though as about 20 people have posted "correlation does not equal causation", the authors are also aware of this and therefore control for many other things. So whenever you doubt the causual relationship claimed by a study, it's always good to actually read the paper.
However in this case, the "correlation does not equal causation" crowd were right, and the authors even admit it
Not only do they find that the relationship goes away once you look at just smokers, or just non-smokers, but they hide this fact in a single sentence, and don't even comment on this result.
Excess [anything] May Be Linked To [something bad]
That's why they call it "excess".
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Meh. My coronary artery disease will likely be the cause of my demise
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress
And in other news a new disease called "Life" was discovered. It has proven to be fatal in 100% of those infected. Scientists are searching for a cure.
Nothing is impossible. It just hasn't been figured out yet.
Coffee has been shown to help in many diseases and increase longevity but seeing that caffeine is addictive I suspect that people with addictive personality problems will be the ones that drink way way too much. People with that problem no doubt indulge in all kinds of behaviors that put them in the grave earlier than is normal.
Assuming that even if the study were to eliminate those with other terrible addictions such as cocaine the people that I have met who drank too much coffee also tended to be serial daters, drove too fast, drank too much pop, gambled, drank too much during social settings (even if they weren't alcoholics) and generally led lives that were a mess. I'm not sure that eliminating coffee would have added a day to their lives.
Excess living leads to early death.
My grandparents drank coffee every day and lived to be in their late eighties and nineties.
Let's face it, most of us are scoffers. But moments before zero hour, it does not pay to take chances.
Coffee is a complex mix of compounds. Coffee consumption was NOT associated with increased hazard ratio (HR) of death from cardiovascular disease. Anybody else see the correlation smoker prevalence and coffee consumption? You can "covary that out" to your hearts content, but dollars to donuts that parametric statistics can't quite get that right so I would doubt any subtle HR changes measured by the model.
It affects the male "valve" for peeing and can be benign although it is getting in the way after some years.
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
A study was published about why scientists feel the need to contradict themselves on the benefits/disadvantages of coffee every six months.
Proof that younger people are more likely to die than people who drink less: Younger people have a greater probability of being alive. People who are alive die with a probability of 1. On the other hand, dead people drink nothing. There are more dead people than alive people, and people who drink less have a good chance of being dead. Dead people don't die (except in rare cases when they were actually undead in the first place).
then Janeway wouldn't have made it past season 3.
Forbes Thought Of The Day
“ Statistics are no substitute for judgment. ”
— Henry Clay
"Fresh fruits & veggies, whole grains, no smoking or chewing tobacco, eating meat sparingly"
Me: Will that make me live longer?
Doc: Perhaps not, but it'll sure feel like it.
Every god-damned week yet another contradictory finding comes out about health or nutrition by yet some other tiresome wowser. Here is my message wowsers: BUZZ OFF.
No study I know of says that drinking lots of coffee is beneficial. 2 cups a day and you are fine. Go over, and you risk problems. It's not complicated.
Table-ized A.I.
I'm not going to even bother to read this abstract as I've read far too many similar studies over the decades, always invalidated and retracted due to not sampling and delineating between coffee AND tobacco, plus other drugs and alcohol. There are simply too many positives associated with coffee as an antioxidant, stomach cancer inhibitor, etc.
things that cause death touted to be a likely cause of many deaths.
http://images.esellerpro.com/2486/I/473/9/lrgscalecoffee-shaking-magnet.jpg
Have gnu, will travel.
So, drinking less than four cups of coffee a day kills you sooner and drinking more than four cups of coffee kills you sooner. By the power of mathematics, I declare four cups of coffee the right amount per day.
According to this article, I died sometime in 1986. So this is what Heaven is like? I thought it was just northern Arizona.
Fact: The human body is capable of processing less oxygen when the blood is on the more acidic range that it swings at.
Lower oxygen levels over long periods of time will reduce your life span. Period.
Weird that they didn't grok on that during the study.
Whatever
Fresh fruits & veggies, whole grains, no smoking or chewing tobacco, eating meat sparingly
That actually sounds like the lifestyle of most of the Third World.
Enjoy your miserable life.
In general excess of anything is deadly.
And then it's good for you again - and then it's bad for you again...
Like brown bread or chocolate or any number of other things.
A recent study also showed it was good for being an anti-oxidant and was good for you.
Researchers really ought to talk to one another...
Fuck you.
Love,
Everybody
From Slashdot last year(http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/05/17/1625203/nih-study-finds-that-coffee-drinkers-have-lower-risk-of-death):
"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."
So, one says that three or more reduces risk of death and the other says more than four increases the risk of death.
I'll drink exactly FOUR cups a day from now on.
I've never understood why some people leave a few sips at the bottom of their cup. Well now we know that excess coffee is dangerous, so finish your coffee people!
People over 55 who drink less than 28 cups a week are at greater risk of feeling like they are dead.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
I suspect there is a 'finding' that 3 cups/day or less is better and 4 cups/day or more is worse.
But that may just be an indication of some other correlation such as the activities or general health/well-being of people who prefer lots of coffee vs those who don't.
If that is true, then the amount of coffee you drink is irrelevant; it is the population you are in that is your main risk factor.
For example, people who don't drink coffee probably tend to eat better. Period.
Not always (most folks don't understand statistics and think that if it didn't occur for one single person, then the study is flawed. Not true. The person whining is flawed in his or her understanding of statistics of _populations_ )
Check out other 'normal' associations of coffee use and other behavior such as exercising.
... yet it has also been shown that there is a correlation of lower rates of colon cancer as well as lower occurrences of Alzheimer's in people who drink around 6 cups/day. I think they need more data including a quantitative analyses of the results of the 6-cup study as backdrop for this (4-cup study). My guess: it evens out and doesn't matter.