Drinking Coffee Could Help You Live Longer, Researchers Say

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)—A new study reveals that coffee could help you to live longer due to its ability to counter an inflammatory process that might drive the development of cardiovascular disease.

The study was led by author David Furman, Ph.D., of the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection at Stanford University in California and published in Medical News Today.

For their study, researchers explored the inflammatory processes and how it might contribute to poor heart health in older age.

A group of healthy adults aged between 20-30 and a group of healthy adults aged 60 and older were all analyzed for the research.

After taking blood samples of each participant, researches found two gene clusters that were more highly active in the older group of participants.

These gene clusters were linked to the production of IL-1-beta, a type of circulating inflammatory protein.

Researchers say older participants who had high gene cluster activity were also significantly more likely to have arterial stiffness--a risk factor for heart attack and stroke--compared with subjects who had low gene cluster activity.

But coffee could help prevent this inflammation.

In the study, researchers found that the blood of older adults who had low gene cluster activity was more likely to contain caffeine metabolites.

When the researchers incubated immune cells with the caffeine metabolites and the nucleic acid metabolites, they found that the caffeine metabolites prevented the inflammatory effects of the nucleic acid metabolites," Medical News Today reports.

Co-senior author Mark Davis, Ph.D., also of the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection at Stanford, says these findings demonstrate that "an underlying inflammatory process, which is associated with aging, is not only driving cardiovascular disease but is, in turn, driven by molecular events that we may be able to target and combat."

READ MORE: Medical News Today | Why might coffee drinkers live longer? Study sheds light