Coffee addicts and aficionados often say drinking the bitter liquid makes life worth living, but the habit may also help them live longer, according to two major international studies Monday. Two major studies, one led by British researchers and one in the US, have independently found consuming up to three cups a day reduces the risk of an early death. Those who drank about three cups a day tended to live longer than non-coffee drinkers, said the study, which researchers described as the largest analysis of the effects of coffee-drinking in a European population. People who drank two to four cups a day had an 18% lower risk of death compared with people who did not drink coffee, according to the study. According to a large study, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, people who drank more coffee had a reduced risk of death from all causes, particularly circulatory diseases and digestive illnesses. Coffee contains a number of compounds which interact with the body, including caffeine, diterpenes and antioxidants, and scientists believe some of these have a protective impact. The new study shows that there is a stronger biological possibility for the relationship between coffee and longevity and found that mortality was inversely related to coffee consumption for heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. Dr Marc Gunter, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, who led the European study with colleagues from Imperial College London, said: "W e found that higher coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death from any cause, and specifically for circulatory diseases, and digestive diseases. ‘Importantly, these results were similar across all of the ten European countries, with variable coffee drinking habits and customs.’

The researchers also found that coffee drinkers had healthier livers overall and better glucose control than non-coffee drinkers. Marc Gunter, co-author on the study and reader in cancer epidemiology and prevention at Imperial College’s School of Public Health in the UK, said, “We looked at multiple countries across Europe, where the way the population drinks coffee and prepares coffee is quite different.”

He said, “The fact that we saw the same relationships in different countries is kind of the implication that it’s something about coffee rather than its something about the way that coffee is prepared or the way it’s drunk.”

The two studies were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The Danes reported the highest level of coffee consumption – 900 millilitres per day – while Italians reported the lowest at 92 millilitres per day. World Health Organization doesn’t think so

In the U.S. findings, the West coast researchers suggest that people in the study sample who drank a cup of coffee a day were 12 per cent less likely to die compared to those who didn’t drink coffee. Americans who consumed a cup of coffee a day were 12 per cent less likely to die compared to those who didn’t drink coffee, and those who drank three cups had an 18 per cent reduced chance of death. "We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association," said lead author Veronica Setiawan, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. "The only way to be certain whether or not coffee might make people live longer is to force many thousands of people to drink it regularly, while preventing many thousands of otherwise similar people to never drink coffee. That said, our results suggest that moderate coffee drinking – up to around three cups per day – is not detrimental, and that incorporating coffee into your diet could have health benefits.’

US study leader Dr Veronica Setiawan, of Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, said: ‘Coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play an important role in cancer prevention.’
Coffee may prolong the human lifespan, suggests one study by Imperial College London and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and another by the Keck School of Medicine of USC.