Two new large-scale studies say drinking coffee around three cups of coffee a day has been linked to a lower risk of death “from any cause”.
Experts believe antioxidant plant compounds found in the drink (coffee), rather than caffeine, may be responsible for its potentially life-extending effect.
The habits of coffee-lovers were shown to add years to their life – with high coffee use shown to reduce the risk of death from diseases related to circulation and digestion in particular.
According to experts more study is required to confidently say that coffee is definitely behind the effects observed in the studies, experts believe the antioxidant plant compounds found in the drink, rather than its caffeine, are responsible for its potentially life-extending effect.
Many Researchers from Imperial College London and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Analyzed data on the health and coffee-drinking habits of more than half a million people from 10 European countries, including the UK.
The results show men who drank at least three cups of coffee a day were 18 per cent less likely to die from any cause than non-coffee drinkers, in case of women experiencing an eight per cent reduction in death over the same time.
In the mean time American scientists conducted a separate examination into the effect of coffee on the health of more than 185,000 test subjects from different racial backgrounds.
They found that people who drank one cup of coffee daily were 12 per cent less likely to die than those who drank no coffee, irrespective of background, while drinking two to three cups of coffee appeared to reduce the chances of death by 18 per cent.
Experts praised the healthy nature of the studies, but warned that further research was needed to prove that the effects observed were caused by the coffee itself, and not other factors.