New research shows that people who drink one cup of coffee a day have a 30% lower suicide rate.

For hundreds of years, coffee has been debated whether it is good or harmful to health.

It is said that the famous French novelist Balzac has a famous saying, "I am not at home, in the coffee shop; not in the coffee shop, on the way to the coffee shop." Balzac needs more than one cup of espresso every day, and he died of encephalitis, chronic heart disease and bronchitis, so it is said that Balzac was killed by coffee.

But recent research is on the positive side of coffee, claiming that drinking coffee can reduce the risk of death.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health first collected data in the United States, asked some adults about their coffee and other food and drink intake, and then collected data on their illness and death over the next two decades, according to CNN. The data collection covers a wide range, including more than 200,000 women and more than 50,000 men.

At first, the researchers did not find a direct link between coffee intake and mortality. But then they focused on those who drank coffee instead of smoking, and found that the relationship was clear: people who drank one to three cups of coffee a day had a 6% lower mortality rate than those who never drank coffee. Those who drank three to five cups or more a day had a 12 per cent lower mortality rate of 12 per cent.

The researchers believe that the findings are basically consistent with previously published studies showing that coffee drinking reduces the incidence of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

But they also point out that because coffee drinkers tend to smoke, the relationship between drinking coffee and reducing mortality is difficult to determine, and the benefits of drinking coffee may be offset by smoking. Although respondents were asked if they smoked, especially for heavy smokers, they tended to underestimate the amount of cigarettes they smoked every day.

What is behind the low mortality rate?

However, it is also possible that coffee has nothing to do with low mortality. Researchers will consider drinking less soda or eating a healthy diet, and they will also consider that coffee drinkers are more likely to have "bad habits", such as drinking alcohol and eating red meat.

But at least the health brought by coffee has something to do with its own ingredients. The lignans and chlorogenic acid in coffee can reduce inflammation and control blood sugar, both of which can help reduce the incidence of heart disease.

The study also showed that coffee drinkers were 10 per cent less likely to die from heart disease and 9 per cent less likely to die from neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

At the same time, according to the subjects selected in the study, those who drank at least one cup of coffee a day had a 20% reduction in suicide rates by 36%. And other studies have shown that coffee drinking is associated with lower suicide rates, but researchers on the project say it's hard to say for sure. "because it is difficult to know whether the composition of coffee has a direct impact on mental health, or whether people who drink a lot of coffee have higher employment rates or have a lifestyle associated with a low suicide rate."

Although previous studies have shown that drinking coffee may prevent prostate and lung cancer, this study does not prove this. The researchers say this may be different from the fact that there are not a large number of people in the sample who have died from certain cancers, such as lung cancer, so it is difficult to see the difference between drinking coffee and not drinking coffee.

Source: thepaper.cn