The daily habit that extends your life. “It could help you live longer, but also be happier”

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If your New Year’s resolution was to give up coffee, you should rethink that idea, because according to a recently published study, regular consumption of caffeinated beverages could extend your life.

In December, researchers from the University of Coimbra in Portugal published a study titled “The Impact of Coffee Consumption on Human Aging: Epidemiology and Cellular Mechanisms” in the journal Aging Research Reviews, showing how coffee may help reduce all-cause mortality.

“Coffee consumption attenuates the major causes of mortality, reducing mortality associated with cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, cancer and respiratory diseases, as well as some of the major causes of functional impairment in the elderly, such as memory loss, depression and frailty,” the authors explain in their introduction , according to foodandwine.com.

In fact, the researchers decided that moderate coffee consumption corresponds to an “average increase in healthy life expectancy of 1.8 years”.

The team noted that the “inverse associations” between coffee consumption and the lowest-risk mortality corresponded to about three cups per day. However, they added, it is difficult to pin down a specific number because the meta-analysis used research with self-reported data from participants, meaning people could have skewed the numbers based on their actual levels of consumption.

Still, it’s a good starting point, as the researchers found “discreet benefits from one cup of coffee per day, maximum benefits from three cups per day, followed by a decline in benefits with increasing amounts of coffee consumed per day.” .

Benefits were seen in both men and women. It even found that drinking decaffeinated coffee was associated with a lower risk of death, “although the strength of this conclusion is limited by the smaller number of individuals consuming decaffeinated coffee.”

“We know that the world’s population is aging faster than ever before, which is why it is increasingly important to explore dietary interventions that can enable people not only to live longer, but also to live healthier lives,” said neurologist Rodrigo Cunha, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.

“Traditional clinical recommendations have sometimes overlooked the role of coffee in healthy aging, but with a strong research base on how regular consumption can reduce some of the most common chronic diseases facing society, it may be time to we are reevaluating”, he adds.

Cunha and his team found that although the idea of ​​well-being is subjective, healthy adults who participated in the studies in this meta-analysis reported “enhanced mood and behavior when drinking coffee or caffeine.”

So yes, it’s great that coffee can help you live longer, but it’s also nice to know that it could help you live happier years.