IS Drinking Coffee IS Beneficial For Health

A new study answers the prayers of caffeine fanatics everywhere by saying that coffee might help you live longer.

When people ask me if I drink coffee, I have to take a moment to give the question its proper response.

Usually, it’s something like, "Oh, you mean the sweet, dark nectar of life?"

Unless I have not yet had my daily espresso when asked, in which case the person asking does not merit a reply. Of course I would drink coffee, moron, who would dream of trying to exist without it, what would a life without the holy bitter bean be worth? Duh.

And now, a new study says that coffee drinkers may live longer than…those other alien people who do not imbibe.

Studies about coffee and its supposed benefits or harms come along regularly, and tell us that caffeine raises blood pressure or is linked to diabetes, or that it has beneficial antioxidants and improves athletic and mental performance, etc.

I only focus on the studies that say caffeine is good for you. It doesn’t matter if coffee is bad for you, because life without it is not worth examining.

The most recent study to come out, which claims that coffee is not bad for you and in fact may confer "a reduced risk of death" is a welcome one, indeed. Reducing the risk of death is especially impressive, since last I checked, everyone is at risk of death.

I knew it! My beloved espresso has the ability to make me immortal.

The study, published in last month’s issue of The Annals of Internal Medicine used data gathered from 42,000 men and 84,000 women over a long period of time, 24 years for women and 18 years for men.

The study participants answered extensive questionnaires every two to four years, including information on their dietary and lifestyle habits, including coffee consumption, exercise, weight, smoking and drinking habits.

The results were more noteworthy for women.

Women who drank coffee were 25% less likely to die of heart-disease related causes than non-coffee drinkers. They were also 18% less likely to die of any other cause, besides cancer, than those weird people who don’t consume coffee.

"Our results suggest that long-term, regular coffee consumption does not increase the risk of death and probably has several beneficial effects on health," said the study’s lead author Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Autonoma University in Madrid, Spain.

Cancer death rates appeared to be unaffected by coffee drinking habits.

Men who drank 2-3 cups of coffee per day had no significant changes in death rates than non-coffee drinking men.

Being an espresso-guzzling woman, this didn’t concern me too much.

The study’s authors did not extrapolate on the results to tell us exactly what about coffee was beneficial to women’s health. Maybe the coffee drinkers were more inclined to exercise after they’d had their jolt of joe, and therefore had healthier hearts.

Maybe the people who can afford to buy coffee just have more money in general, a correlative factor in living longer, as those with comfortable finances can also afford good health insurance, healthy food, and the like.

As for avoiding "other" causes of death besides heart attacks (and excluding cancer, as the coffee consumption had no effect on this), perhaps the coffee drinkers were more alert in general and didn’t say, fall asleep at the wheel of a car as often, or maybe they were buzzed-up on their dark roast and simply moving too fast to be say, hit by a truck.

Who knows? I can say that coffee drinkers are happier people in general, based on my completely objective observations. And happier people live longer.

Coffee has kept me company through sleepless nights and early mornings in college, sleepless nights and early mornings as a new mom, and sleepless nights and early mornings as……an older mom and an older college student.

Every morning, no matter what, my espresso is by my side, my old and reliable friend, outlasting boyfriends and pets, moves across the country, big changes and little. Life is unpredictable and messy. But my short, dark, double shot of espresso is neat and predictable, with its trusted rich nutty aroma rising to greet me in the same friendly way every single day.

There is a reason that, no matter where we are, on a trip to the in-laws or in the middle of nowhere, I will scope out the nearest Peet’s (or Starbucks if I’m desperate), or better yet, carefully pack my espresso machine into my tightly stuffed suitcase. Cute outfits be damned, that espresso machine is more important.

Don’t ask me to choose between my double shot and my husband if I were stranded on a desert island. For one thing, I like being alone. Just me and Joe.

And while I was pleased to read this study, I couldn’t disagree more with one expert’s read on it.

"I think that what this study tells us is not so much that coffee is the answer to everything," says Dr. Peter Galier, an internal medicine specialist at UCLA. "But, rather, that some compounds, such as the antioxidants found in coffee, may be healthy."

Wait, I did not hear the second part of what he said. Dr. Galier, you are dead wrong. Coffee is, in fact, the answer to everything.