Emily Chan
If you want to protect yourself from an early death, drinking coffee might be the way to go. Many of us are bound to our desks every day for work, and the lack of physical activity increases our risk of dying prematurely. Luckily, your morning cup of coffee can help extend your life.
Researchers from China analyzed the data of over 10,000 adults from the United States. The data was acquired from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a program aimed at evaluating the health and nutrition of adults and kids in the United States. The researchers directed their focus on information from 2007 to 2018.
They found that sitting for long periods of time increases the risk of premature death, but people who drank coffee regularly appeared to be more protected from this effect.
As our lives become increasingly sedentary, these new findings offer some possible ways of mitigating health risks.
In the study, the researchers looked at the length of time that people sat each day and the amount of coffee they consumed.
They grouped participants based on their daily sitting time in categories of less than four hours, four to six hours, six to eight hours, or more than eight hours.
The participants were also measured by their coffee consumption, with categories consisting of non-drinkers and then three levels of consumption for those who did drink coffee.
Then, the researchers made sure to take into account other factors that could skew the results, including age, gender, race, income, education level, body mass index, and various health conditions.
Ultimately, individuals who sat for more than eight hours a day had a 79 percent elevated risk of passing away due to cardiovascular disease and a 46 percent higher risk of dying from any cause compared to people who sat for less than four hours a day.
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