A new study suggests that coffee drinkers - even those who just drink one cup a day - can lead a longer life compared to those who do not drink coffee.
A team from Stanford University School of Medicine found crucial evidence that links older age, systematic inflammation, and cardiovascular diseases with coffee drinking. They found out that inflammatory processes are more common among older people and can trigger cardiovascular issues and even more deaths.
However, for those who drink more caffeinated drinks like coffee, this inflammation process is somewhat prevented.
During the study, researchers obtained blood samples and medical data such as family histories from 100 participants, and intensive analysis revealed that any inflammation due to aging is linked to many chronic diseases.
According to the lead author of the study, David Furman of Stanford, more than 90 percent of these diseases associated with aging are also linked with chronic inflammation. Numerous studies have provided evidence that chronic inflammation causes many types of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia, cardiovascular diseases, and even depression.
More specifically, metabolites from nucleic acids that are also the building blocks of our genes can apparently trigger inflammatory.
In this new study provided crucial evidence that caffeine that apparently prevents this circulating nucleic acid metabolites, explaining why coffee drinkers may live longer than those who do not drink coffee.
Laboratory results also show that caffeine can directly counter associated metabolites in older people, targeting two gene clusters that produce an inflammatory protein known as IL-1-beta.
"Caffeine is already well known to increase longevity, and our new findings show how any inflammatory process linked with aging can cause cardiovascular disease and can be combated with molecular events driven by caffeine," said Mark Davis of Stanford.
This new study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.