Celebrate National Coffee Day With Another Cup — You May Live Longer

ACROSS AMERICA — Go ahead and have a second — or even fifth — cup of coffee and celebrate National Coffee Day with renewed confidence. You may live longer because of it.

That’s according to a new study that suggests moderate coffee consumption may protect against cardiovascular disease and early death, according to a study published Tuesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

The researchers said their findings are contrary to the advice of 80 percent of health practitioners who recommend patients with cardiovascular disease avoid coffee.

Not only may moderate amounts of coffee be part of a healthy lifestyle, it’s OK to go ahead and have the caffeine, according to the UK Biobank study of 449,563 people with a median age of 58 years.

While the risk of an irregular heartbeat, called an arrhythmia, was lower among people who drink either regular or instant caffeinated coffee, drinking decaffeinated coffee did not lower the risk, according to the study.

Daily consumption of up to five cups of all types of coffee — ground, instant and decaffeinated — was associated with significant reductions in the risk for coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure and stroke when compared with non-coffee drinkers.

The most significant results were among those who limit their coffee intake to two or three cups a day, the researchers said.

The study builds on earlier studies on the health benefits of coffee. An assortment of studies have shown that drinking three to five cups of coffee a day may lower the risk of heart disease, as well as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, liver disease and prostate cancer, CNN reported.

“This manuscript adds to the body of evidence from observational trials associating moderate coffee consumption with cardioprotection, which looks promising,” Charlotte Mills, a lecturer in nutritional sciences at the University of Reading in the UK, told CNN in a statement.

Mills, who was not involved in the study, pointed out the study was only observational in nature and, therefore, cannot prove a direct cause and effect.

“Does coffee make you healthy, or do inherently healthier people consume coffee?” she asked. “Randomized controlled trials are needed to prove the relationship between coffee and cardiovascular health.”