People who drink coffee have a reduced risk of dying from a number of causes – including heart disease, stroke and liver disease – according to new research, although this might be because coffee drinkers have healthier lifestyles rather than any intrinsic benefits of coffee itself.
“It is plausible that there is something else behind this that is causing this relationship,” said Marc Gunter, a co-author of one of the studies, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer. However, he added, based on the consistency of the results he would be surprised if coffee itself didn’t play a role in reducing the risk of death.
“We found that coffee drinkers had a reduced risk of death from heart disease, from cancer, from stroke, respiratory disease, diabetes and kidney disease,” said Veronica Setiawan, associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California and a co-author of the research.
The authors of both studies also agreed more work is needed to establish a direct, causal link and identify which biologically active components in coffee, if any, might be the cause of the health benefits.
