Diabetic Women May Live Longer With Tea And Coffee, Says Study

A study conducted in London claims that drinking tea and coffee may lower death risk in women. Majority of the adult population of the world consumes caffeine daily, either in the form of tea or coffee. On an average, coffee consumption goes as much as 100mgs a day to 300mgs a day, depending on age and country. A number of studies have shown the positives of drinking coffee on the risk of death in the general population but not much is known about how caffeine affects mortality in diabetic people.

Researchers, including people from the University of Porto in Portugal have examined the association between the caffeine intake and mortality in over 3000 diabetic men and women from 1999 to 2010.

With the help of 24-hour dietary recalls, the participants revealed their caffeine intake in form of tea or coffee or soft drinks, when they entered the study. For this, they responded to structured interviews for assessing accurate intake of caffeine in the previous hours.

The study was conducted over a period of 11 years and 618 died during this period. The researchers found that women who consumed up to 100mgs of caffeine a day were 57% less likely to die early as compared to those who did not consume caffeine. Women who consumed up to 200mg a day were at a 66% lower risk of death as compared to non-consumers. As for diabetic men, not many benefits of caffeine consumption were noticed.

For caffeine consumption from tea, women were divided into four groups namely zero, low, medium and high. Women with high consumption of caffeine from tea were identified for an 80% reduced risk of cancer as compared to those women who were at the zero level of caffeine consumption from tea.

."Our study showed a dose-dependent protective effect of caffeine consumption on all-cause mortality among women." researchers said.

"The effect on mortality appears to depend on the source of caffeine, with a protective effect of coffee consumption on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality, and a protective effect of caffeine from tea on cancer mortality among women with diabetes." they added.