FollowA new study conducted by researchers in the US says drinking four cups of coffee a day may increase the risk of dying in people below the age group of 55. Earlier, several reports suggested drinking of coffee may result in some health benefits in most people like fighting depression in women and lowering the risk of prostate cancer and stroke. Well, the debate continues to brew.
The study was conducted on 43,727 men and women between the age group of 20 and 87 from 1971 to 2002. Its report was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings journal which says younger men below the age of 55 years who drank 28 cups of coffee a week were more likely, by 56 percent, to die from any cause. The report adds that the risk increases by twofold for women in the same age group if they drink coffee in the same quantity or more.
Co-author of the study and assistant professor of exercise science with the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, Xuemei Sui said, “From our study, it seems safe to drink one to three cups of coffee a day… Drinking more than four cups of coffee a day may endanger health.” A cup of coffee as per Sui is 6 to 8 ounces.
Sui added, the study of her team failed to find any significant link between heart disease death and coffee consumption, and also further research is to be made to find association between cancer and coffee.
Gregg Fonarow, co-chief of clinical cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says, “Differences in other dietary factors, marital status and other socioeconomic factors that were not adjusted for in this study may account for some or all of these observations.”
The study also found people who drank coffees more than 8 ounces, or larger amounts liked to smoke more and hence had less healthy hearts and lungs. In this regard Sui says as more research is to be done in this segment so it is advised to avoid drinking excessive coffee.
