Raising doubts about the old myth that coffee is associated with increased deaths in men or women, the new study finds that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption is actually beneficial for health.
Dr. Esther Lopez-Garcia, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Autonoma University here who lead the study, says coffee might even help the heart, especially for women. The researchers analyzed data of 84,214 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study and 41,736 men who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
The researchers found that women consuming two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up period as compared with non-consumers. For men, this level of consumption was associated with neither a higher nor a lower risk of death during the follow-up period.
The lower death rate in women was linked to a lower risk for heart disease deaths, the researchers found. However, the relationship did not seem to be directly related to caffeine since those who drank decaf also had a lower death rate than those who didn't drink either kind of coffee.
However, the researchers cautioned that the study does not make it certain that coffee decreases the chances of dying sooner than expected. The team published its findings in the June 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
