Drinking coffee can make people live longer.

Drinking one or more cups of coffee a day not only does not harm your health, but also reduces the risk of dying from chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, according to a new study.

The relationship between coffee drinking and health is one of the hot topics in recent years. Some studies suggest that drinking coffee is better for health and reduce the risk of premature death, while others suggest that coffee, especially caffeine, can cause heart disease because of its negative effects on blood pressure, cholesterol and heart rate.

The new study, as a joint project by researchers from the National Institutes of Health, followed more than 400000 men and women between the ages of 50 and 71 for 13 years. 13% of the respondents died during this period.

Overall, coffee drinkers had lower mortality rates than non-coffee drinkers during the study period, and the more coffee they drank, the lower their risk of death. Compared with those who did not drink coffee at all, those who drank more than six cups of coffee a day had a 10 per cent lower risk of death in men and 15 per cent lower in women during the study.