If you’ve ever contemplated whether or not you should have that second – or third – cup of coffee, the results from a new study might convince you to do just that.
A new study recently published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that healthy adults who consume 200-300 mg of caffeine every day – or two to three cups of coffee – could lower their risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity.
According to the researchers, cardiometabolic multimorbidity occurs when patients are diagnosed with more than one cardiometabolic disease such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, or stroke.
“Consuming three cups of coffee, or 200-300 mg of caffeine, per day might help to reduce the risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity in individuals without any cardiometabolic disease,” said researcher Dr. Chaofu Ke. “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 cardiometabolic multimorbidity.”
The benefits of coffee
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from approximately 360,000 participants enrolled in the U.K. Biobank. The participants answered questionnaires about their daily caffeine intake, and the researchers analyzed their health records. None of the participants had a history of cardiometabolic issues when the study began.
Overall, coffee drinkers proved to have a lower risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity.
Those who drank three cups per day had a 48% lower risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity compared to those who drank no coffee and those who drank less than 100 mg of caffeine per day. Similarly, those who had 200-300 mg of caffeine per day had an over 40% lower risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity.
The researchers explained that this study marks the first time it’s been proven that coffee, tea, or caffeine intake can lower the risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity – not just individual cardiometabolic diseases.
Additionally, they noted that while any cardiometabolic disease increases the risk of morbidity, cardiometabolic multimorbidity increases the risk of death from any cause by as much as seven times.