Coffee Consumption Linked to Lower Risk of Cardiometabolic Diseases

Moderate consumption of caffeine or coffee is associated with a reduced risk of developing multiple cardiometabolic diseases, new research has found.

Coffee’s impact on health has long been debated, with research suggesting that the caffeinated beverage can have both positive and negative effects on the body.

Now, there is even more evidence to support the former. A new study suggests that regular coffee or caffeine intake at moderate levels is associated with a lower risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CM), which refers to the coexistence of at least two cardiometabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke.

The findings, published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, suggest that coffee could protect against cardiometabolic diseases, which are on the rise worldwide as populations continue to age rapidly.

Researchers found that for individuals without any cardiometabolic diseases, consuming specifically three cups of coffee per day, or roughly 200-300 mg caffeine, may help lower the risk of developing CM.

“The findings highlight that promoting moderate amounts of coffee or caffeine intake as a dietary habit to healthy people might have far-reaching benefits for the prevention of CM,” said lead author Chaofu Ke, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health at Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, in a news release.

To produce these results, researchers used data from the UK Biobank — a longitudinal dietary study with over 500,000 participants between the ages of 37 and 73. After excluding participants who didn’t provide concrete details about their caffeine intake, researchers identified a total of 172,315 individuals who didn’t have any cardiometabolic diseases at baseline and a corresponding 188,091 individuals for the analyses of coffee and tea consumption.

Researchers determined CM outcomes for participants using self-reported medical information, primary care data, linked inpatient hospital data, and death registry records linked to the UK Biobank.

In the end, they found that those who drank moderate amounts of coffee or caffeine had the lowest risk for new-onset CM compared with those who consumed less or no caffeine. Compared with those who drank none or less, individuals who consumed three cups of coffee or 200-300 mg of caffeine per day had a 48.1% or 40.7% reduced risk for new-onset CM, respectively.

CM is associated with a much higher risk of mortality than one single cardiometabolic disease, the researchers noted. They found that those with a single cardiometabolic disease may have a two-fold higher all-cause mortality risk than those without one, while individuals with CM may have an almost four to seven times higher risk of all-cause mortality.

While early studies on coffee suggest that it does present some health risks, other more recent studies have demonstrated its many benefits, according to the Harvard Chan School of Public Health — including a reduced risk of likelihood of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, liver, and endometrial cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and depression.