Best Study Ever Proves Coffee Is Literally A Life Saver

Higher coffee consumption is actually linked to lower death rates, studies show

Go ahead and put on another pot of coffee for today. And don’t just do it because you’re tired and stressed and you deserve it — do it because it may actually help you live longer.

A study presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Annual Conference this week suggests that around four cups a day is the sweet spot, and drinking that much coffee was linked to a lower all-cause death rate among study participants.

This isn’t exactly new information. Studies have been linking coffee consumption to lower death rates for decades, according to the ESC. But this new study lends more credibility to that theory by replicating those results in close to 20,000 participants in Mediterranean countries.

“Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages around the world,” Dr. Adela Navarro, a cardiologist at Hospital de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, wrote in a press release for the ESC announcing the findings of the study. “Previous studies have suggested that drinking coffee might be inversely associated with all-cause mortality but this has not been investigated in a Mediterranean country.”

Of the 19,896 participants who took part in the study over the course of 10 years, 337 died. Surveys of the foods and drinks they consumed and in what quantities showed that participants who drank four cups of coffee each day had a 64 percent lower chance of dying from any cause.

And the news gets even better. In study participants who were at least 45 years old, drinking at least six cups of coffee each day lowered their risk of death even more — they were another 30 percent less likely to die.

Unfortunately, researchers aren’t sure that the coffee is entirely to blame for the decreased likelihood of death in those older participants — instead, they think it might just be that older people are more aware of their mortality and thus take better care of themselves and take fewer risks. But just to be safe, go ahead and have those extra few cups of coffee. It can’t hurt, right?

“In the SUN project we found an inverse association between drinking coffee and the risk of all-cause mortality, particularly in people aged 45 years and above. This may be due to a stronger protective association among older participants,” Dr. Navarro said. “Our findings suggest that drinking four cups of coffee each day can be part of a healthy diet in healthy people.”

BRB, going to Starbucks.