

NIH study finds that coffee drinkers have lower risk of death  - mrsebastian
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/may2012/nci-16.htm

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mapleoin
_Researchers caution, however, that they can't be sure whether these
associations mean that drinking coffee actually makes people live longer._

 _Also, information was not available on how the coffee was prepared
(espresso, boiled, filtered, etc.); the researchers consider it possible that
preparation methods may affect the levels of any protective components in
coffee._

I wonder who pays for these studies... It seems like this article was written
to be misquoted by tabloids all over the world.

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artmageddon
Just out of curiosity, am I crazy by _not_ regularly drinking coffee? Is there
some benefit from it that I'm potentially missing out on, or will I perhaps be
in for a rude awakening in a few years because of my lack of it? I do recall
reading somewhere that people who did drink coffee vs those who didn't had
better odds against things like Alzheimer's disease, so maybe that's one
benefit..?

I'm completely serious in asking - I passed my 30th birthday a couple weeks
ago and even for the past few years my aunt and others I know always ask how I
get by without it. I have no aversion to it and would drink it if I needed a
boost due to a poor night's sleep, but that would be maybe once every few
months at most. This doesn't make me special at all so I'm not boasting or
anything - the only reason I don't drink it(other than fear of stained teeth)
is because I don't want to develop a need* for it, i.e. "I can't start my day
until I've had that first mug". That would hardly be the worst thing in the
world, but I'd just rather avoid it if I could.

For what it's worth I typically get 6-7 hours of sleep each night, and I
exercise several times a week.

*I would typically use the word addiction, but that might be a little too strong given the context

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dorianj
Not everyone drinks it for the caffeine alone. It's quite delicious when
prepared properly. So, I don't think you're crazy if you're not crazy about
coffee's flavor.

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artmageddon
> It's quite delicious when prepared properly. So, I don't think you're crazy
> if you're not crazy about coffee's flavor.

Oh, I agree! A tall cup of Colombian with a shot of hazelnut is absolutely
delicious. I can't drink it totally dark though, there has to be some type of
creamer or sugar in it where I can enjoy it properly... but then there's the
amount of calories in doing so.. but I digress :)

~~~
grimboy
On the upside caffeine can reduce your appetite so it may be an overall win.

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joelrunyon
Doesn't everyone by definition have the same risk of death? ( _spoiler alert:_
it's gonna happen).

Shouldn't this read "lower risk of health-related death causes?" or something
similar.

Seems like a link-bait type headline with a lot of sketchy information to be
considered a scientific study.

Also, correlation /=/ causation.

 _Although we cannot infer a causal relationship between coffee drinking and
lower risk of death, we believe these results do provide some reassurance that
coffee drinking does not adversely affect health."_

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briancooley
_Doesn't everyone by definition have the same risk of death?_

It's risk of death over a specified period:

"The participants were followed until the date they died or Dec. 31, 2008,
whichever came first."

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joelrunyon
It's still a misleading/confusing headline.

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tokenadult
From the submitted article:

"Neal Freedman, Ph.D., Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI, and
his colleagues examined the association between coffee drinking and risk of
death in 400,000 U.S. men and women ages 50 to 71 who participated in the NIH-
AARP Diet and Health Study. Information about coffee intake was collected once
by questionnaire at study entry in 1995-1996. The participants were followed
until the date they died or Dec. 31, 2008, whichever came first."

Collecting data about coffee use only once would of course miss collecting
data about people whose habits changed during the course of the study.

"The researchers found that the association between coffee and reduction in
risk of death increased with the amount of coffee consumed. Relative to men
and women who did not drink coffee, those who consumed three or more cups of
coffee per day had approximately a 10 percent lower risk of death."

Looking at the data to see if there is a dose response is a key issue in
observational studies of this kind that many other studies miss. This isn't
the last word on the subject, for the reason mentioned above and for other
reasons mentioned in other comments, but at least here the study authors are
treating coffee use as a quantitative independent variable and not just as a
binary variable.

For the record, I began daily use of coffee (one cup each morning with
breakfast) only after age forty. I asked around a long time before learning
how to establish a habit that would not spiral into increasingly heavy use and
physiological tolerance that would keep me upping my dosage for years and
years and years. I come from a family with varying coffee-drinking habits but
generally long lifespans.

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skittles
Food experiments suck. Coffee is a complex beverage. I see a few variables
that must be isolated; caffeine and sugar intake being the biggest two. What
do non-coffee drinkers drink more of on average? I'm guessing sugary sodas.

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makmanalp
Could there be selection bias? Stupid example theory: Habitual coffee drinkers
do so because they have to wake up every morning to go to work, which is a
population group that has a steady income and life, does not abuse substances
and has access to healthcare. All factors that increase the length of life.

~~~
pyre
Completely anecdotal, I've known lots of people in lower income brackets that
drink a ton of coffee.

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_delirium
For something like this, it's probably best as a non-specialist not to put too
much weight on any one study, and wait for a good meta-analysis. There have
been a _lot_ of studies on the effect of coffee drinking in various
populations, on various diseases, and the results are not strongly consistent.

I seem to recall (but can't find a good reference at the moment) that one of
the many puzzles in the area is why American studies more often find positive
results than European studies; possibly relates to the kind of coffee consumed
or methods of preparation, or possibly to interactions with other factors, or
different demographic correlates.

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JPKab
In other words: People who happen to drink coffee, for some reason that may or
may not be related to coffee, live longer on average than people who don't
drink coffee. Do people who don't drink coffee have lifestyles similar to
those who do? On average, I highly doubt it. Observational studies are
terrible when they generate headlines, but good when they generate controlled,
scientific studies with proper isolation of variables. Since this is super
expensive to do with humans as test subjects, it's not done very often,
leading to piles upon piles of shitty science pertaining to human nutrition.

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vannevar
I'd be interested to know if they controlled for employment. I imagine
employed people are more likely to drink coffee, less likely to have
disabilities, and more likely to have health insurance and better health care
in general.

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Tichy
"The researchers found that the association between coffee and reduction in
risk of death increased with the amount of coffee consumed."

Unfortunately, drinking too much coffee in one go can kill you, as it is
toxic.

~~~
pyre
The same can be said of water...

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Tichy
Sure, but I am not aware of a paper that claims that the more water you drink
the longer you live.

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pyre
They did not say that the risk of death decreases linearly with the amount of
coffee that one drinks. Such a statement could possibly encourage people to
drink amounts of coffee that could be detrimental to their health.

What they did say is that people that regularly drink 3+ cups of coffee a day
seemed to correlate with decreased risk of death (over the period in
question). In my opinion, this would only encourage people to take up drinking
3-4 cups of coffee a day. I do not see a risk of someone overdosing on coffee
in response to this study.

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Cieplak
I read this as, "Coffee increases your chances of living forever."

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pfortuny
Ehm, last time I checked risk of death was 100% for every human being.

But maybe coffee gives some odds?

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jmmcd
Effect is for three cups per day or more. I find more than 1.5 cups in a
day... distasteful.

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maeon3
Caffeine (used at strategic times) makes you care, boosting willpower and
determination which brings success, success brings money and happiness,
happiness makes you live longer. Too much caffeine has the opposite effect
though. I want to know how much they consumed, not just that they did.

It's like saying a nitro boost usage in car racing causes winning. Yes, at a
penalty of burning out the engine.

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naner
At a glance it seems to be a correlation so it could just be that people who
live longer also tend to drink more coffee for whatever reason (maybe as you
suggest they are driven, competitive, and use it to stay alert longer). I
think the same is true for casual alcohol consumption.

In other words, it would be a stretch to suggest that coffee consumption is
strictly beneficial.

