A new study from Portugal suggests that drinking coffee could add nearly two extra years to your life.
Published in Ageing Research Reviews, the research found that the benefits of coffee consumption are “equivalent to an average increase of 1.8 years of healthy lifespan.”
The Portuguese research team notes that as the global population ages, regular, moderate coffee consumption may play a key role in supporting a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
Rodrigo Cunha, from the University of Coimbra in Portugal and the study’s lead author, explained: “We know the world’s population is aging faster than ever, which is why exploring dietary interventions that help people not only live longer but live healthier is increasingly important.”
Coffee is one of the most extensively studied beverages and has been shown to reduce mortality from many causes, including lowering the risk of heart disease, cognitive decline, and chronic illnesses.
Although often associated with caffeine, coffee actually contains more than 2,000 bioactive compounds, many with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. These may help reduce neuroinflammation and regulate insulin sensitivity.
“Our review highlights the role of regular, moderate coffee consumption in counteracting the biological mechanisms that naturally slow down or weaken as we age—mechanisms that can lead to a range of health problems and age-related diseases,” Cunha said.
The team also noted that some nutritional “anti-aging” interventions can be biased toward men or women. However, the aging-related benefits of coffee were found in both sexes.
For their review, the authors focused on studies examining how coffee influences biological processes involved in aging, such as genomic instability and cellular mutations.
Although older adults are often advised to limit or avoid coffee, the researchers suggest that clinical guidelines should be re-evaluated in light of strong scientific evidence supporting coffee’s role in healthy aging.
“Traditional clinical recommendations have sometimes overlooked coffee’s role in healthy aging,” Cunha said. “But with solid research showing that regular consumption may reduce some of society’s most prevalent chronic diseases, it may be time to reconsider these guidelines.”
Still, the researchers conclude that the precise mechanisms by which coffee and its components extend healthy lifespan remain unclear, and future studies are needed to explore this further.