High on Health: Aging Better With Coffee

As Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, sweeps the nation, people seem even more conscious about what they eat. The trick, however, is finding healthy foods and trying to sort through and make sense of the ingredients. A new study suggests that drinking coffee daily is linked to healthier aging. Let’s dive deeper into this and other studies and explore the benefits of coffee in High on Health With Kelli Ballard.

Is drinking a cup of hot coffee part of your morning ritual? If so, there’s some good news. According to a new study, presented recently at an annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, drinking coffee may help you age better. The study has not been peer-reviewed or published; however, it involved monitoring more than 47,000 female nurses for three decades.

Every few years, the women would check in to answer a few questions about their health and diets, including how much coffee, tea, and soda they usually consumed. In 2016, the scientists looked at how many were still alive and aging healthily. Most were in their 70s or older by that time. Of the original number, just over 3,700 of the participants met the study’s criteria, which included remaining in good health and being free of a variety of chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, among others.

After factoring in other health concerns, such as diet, exercise, and whether they smoked, the study found that the “women who met researchers’ criteria for ‘healthy aging’ typically consumed an average of 315 mg of caffeine per day when they were between the ages of 45 and 60, mostly from drinking coffee,” explained Time. “And for the women in that group of ‘healthy agers,’ each extra cup of coffee per day was associated with a 2-5% higher chance of faring well as they aged, up to five small cups per day.”

That’s not to say you should run out and stock up on your favorite java and spend your day drinking coffee. Too much of a good thing can be unhealthy. Researchers suggest that after a certain amount of caffeine, the benefits start to plateau. Plus, too much can make a person fidgety and irritable. The US Food and Drug Administration considers 400 milligrams, or about four cups, a safe amount for healthy adults.

There are some exceptions. Pregnant women should limit their intake to about two cups, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and children under 12 should not consume food or beverages containing caffeine, suggests the American Academy of Pediatrics. Adolescents 12 and older should limit their intake to no more than 100 mg a day, roughly two or three 12-ounce cans of soda.

Also, some people may be sensitive to caffeine and can experience anxiety, insomnia, and a rapid heart rate. In that case, it is recommended that they cut back on their caffeine intake until the symptoms disappear.

Rewarding Benefits for Coffee Drinkers

An article published by Johns Hopkins University details nine reasons why coffee, in the right amount, is good for us:

1. Women are less likely to die from some common causes of death, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and diabetes.
2. Can improve glucose metabolism, which may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
3. Less likely to develop heart failure; helps a weakened heart pump more blood.
4. Less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease; helps reduce symptoms.
5. More likely to have healthy levels of liver enzymes.
6. Dark roasted coffee decreases breakage in DNA strands, which could otherwise lead to cancer.
7. Lower risk of getting colon cancer, which affects 1 in 23 women.
8. Decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in general.
9. Lowers the risk of stroke.

A little history: In the 1850s, coffee was recommended to treat asthma because it acts as a bronchodilator and helps reduce respiratory muscle fatigue. According to a 2010 study in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Caffeine has a variety of pharmacological effects … It is chemically related to the drug theophylline which is used to treat asthma. It has been suggested that caffeine may reduce asthma symptoms and interest has been expressed in its potential role as an asthma treatment.”

There are some cautions: Caffeine can interact with medications. According to The Nutrition Source, “It can cause your body to break down a medication too quickly so that it loses its effectiveness. It can cause a dangerously fast heartbeat and high blood pressure if taken with other stimulant medications.”

Also, how you take your cup of coffee factors into overall healthy aging. If you drink a little coffee with your sugar or add a lot of half-and-half to it, then the benefits decline. If you need something to sweeten your brew, try cinnamon or even cocoa. According to several studies, there is a difference between regular and decaffeinated coffee as well. While both have benefits, researchers say decaf is less beneficial because it doesn’t have enough caffeine.

If you’ve been feeling guilty about that morning brew, you can relax and enjoy that java with the knowledge that it can be contributing to your overall wellness as you age.