HHS HealthBeat (July 26, 2012)

Living on coffee

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study indicates coffee may be more than just something to drink. At the National Institutes of Health, researchers looked at data on 400,000 people ages 50 to 71, to see if coffee drinking was linked to risk of death.

Dr. Neal Freedman found that, compared to non-coffee drinkers:

“Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, respiratory disease and infections.”

There wasn’t a difference between people who drank the caffeine version or decaf.

Freedman says this doesn’t necessarily mean people can drink their way to better health. He says it could be something in the coffee, or there could be something else going on, and it’ll take more research to find out.

The study was in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July 25, 2012