Does coffee lower mortality?

[MeSci]

An addition to the plethora of threads about whether coffee is good or bad:

Association of Coffee Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality
in Three Large Prospective Cohorts

Running title: Ding et al.; Coffee and Total and Cause-specific Mortality

Ming Ding, MD1,2; Ambika Satija, BA1,2; Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju, PhD1; Yang Hu, MS1; Qi Sun, MD, DSc1,3; Jiali Han, DSc4,5; Esther Lopez-Garcia, PhD6; Walter Willett, MD, DrPH1,2,3; Rob M. van Dam, PhD1,7; Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD1,2,3

1Dept of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; 2Dept of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; 3Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; 4Dept of Epidemiology, Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN; 5Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN; 6Dept of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid/IdiPAZ, CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain; 7Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore

Abstract

Background—The association between consumption of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and risk of mortality remains inconclusive.

Methods and Results—We examined the associations of consumption of total, caffeinated, and decaffeinated coffee with risk of subsequent total and cause-specific mortality among 74,890 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), 93,054 women in the NHS 2, and 40,557 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Coffee consumption was assessed at baseline using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. During 4,690,072 person-years of follow-up, 19,524 women and 12,432 men died. Consumption of total, caffeinated, and decaffeinated coffee were non-linearly associated with mortality. Compared to non-drinkers, coffee consumption one to five cups/d was associated with lower risk of mortality, while coffee consumption more than five cups/d was not associated with risk of mortality. However, when restricting to never smokers, compared to non-drinkers, the HRs of mortality were 0.94 (0.89 to 0.99) for 1 cup/d, 0.92 (0.87 to 0.97) for 1.1-3 cups/d, 0.85 (0.79 to 0.92) for 3.1-5 cups/d, and 0.88 (0.78 to 0.99) for > 5 cups/d (p for non-linearity = 0.32; p for trend < 0.001). Significant inverse associations
were observed for caffeinated (p for trend < 0.001) and decaffeinated coffee (p for trend = 0.022). Significant inverse associations were observed between coffee consumption and deaths due to cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, and suicide. No significant association between coffee consumption and total cancer mortality was found.

Conclusions—Higher consumption of total coffee, caffeinated coffee, and decaffeinated coffee was associated with lower risk of total mortality.

 

[CantThink]

I had two big mugs of it this morning

 

[Beyond]

Not if you have the GG genotype for slow metabolizer like me - it only increases chances of heart attack, murder sprees and psychosis

Now seriously, if you have that genetic trait drinking coffee will undoubtely make you die quicker, by different means. Fortunately we feel too awful on caffeine to stay on it consistently.

Apparently coffee IS healthy for quick metabolizers, it is not the first time I read about it.

 

[justy]

Caffeine makes me feel hideous!

 

[perchance dreamer]

I always find coffee studies unsatisfying because they don't really quantify the amount of coffee brewed in a cup. I also wonder when they say a cup do they mean literally 8 oz or whatever the comparable metric measurement is, or do they mean any size cup or mug?

I make one really strong cup of coffee a day, which would not compare to the amount in a cup of weak office coffee.

On the other hand, even if these studies are inexact, I'm always tickled to see positive conclusions about coffee drinking. I love my coffee, and you'd have to pry it from my cold stiff fingers!

 

[MeSci]

I used to have no problems at all with coffee - it didn't keep me awake, for example, but it seems to make me a bit jittery now if I have more than 1 mug. I drink instant, with caffeine, and fairly strong. Shame, as I really like it!

 

[IreneF]

The study didn't look at caffeine consumption, it looked at coffee consumption. Coffee has got all kinds of chemicals in it, not just caffeine. Also, the amount of caffeine is dependent on how long the grounds contact the hot water, so an espresso (brewed quickly) has less caffeine than a slower method.

 

[duncan]

"coffee consumption more than five cups per day was not associated with risk of mortality."

Every nuanced aspect of every thing we do or think... every second of every day for as long as we live... is associated with risk of mortality,

 

[Valentijn]

"coffee consumption more than five cups per day was not associated with risk of mortality."

Every nuanced aspect of every thing we do or think... every second of every day for as long as we live... is associated with risk of mortality,

Or it reflects research practices where the data is subgrouped until an affirmative result is found

They didn't just break it down by arbitrary amounts of coffee ... they also had to subgroup based on smoking status in what sounds like a very post-hoc analysis.

 

[IreneF]

Or it reflects research practices where the data is subgrouped until an affirmative result is found

They didn't just break it down by arbitrary amounts of coffee ... they also had to subgroup based on smoking status in what sounds like a very post-hoc analysis.

No, it's because smoking is known to correlate with mortality, and they wanted to eliminate confounders. I thought it was a nicely done study, possibly because I drink three cups of coffee per day.

 

[MeSci]

Not if you have the GG genotype for slow metabolizer like me - it only increases chances of heart attack, murder sprees and psychosis

So it may increase the general death-rate!

 

[Beyond]

So it may increase the general death-rate!

Indeedydoody!