Will Caffeine Make You Live Longer?

According to a recent Stanford University study, caffeine may block age-related inflammation and extend life.  This study follows in line with many other studies also showing that natural sources of caffeine may lengthen your lifespan.  In this article, I review the science and answer the question, will caffeine make you live longer?

The Stanford Caffeine Study

In blog #197, I discussed how keeping inflammation levels as low as possible may help you live to age 110.  As my blog readers know, inflammation is one of the main causes of heart disease, dementia, and cancer.

In this Stanford study, researchers also came to the same conclusion.  Age-related inflammation is the major driver of health and longevity in humans.

As part of their experiment, they wanted to see if caffeine could make you live longer by blocking this age-related inflammation.  To do this, they recruited about a hundred people, followed them for many years, and closely monitored which genes were turned on and which were turned off.

In particular, they were focussed on the inflammatory molecule interleukin 1β.   Interleukin 1β is an age-related molecule that is readily seen as people get older and have many medical conditions.

What they found was really quite interesting.  Those people consuming the highest levels of natural caffeine had very low expression of genes associated with inflammation or interleukin 1β.  Thus, people regularly consuming natural caffeine were much less likely to have cardiovascular disease and other age-related diseases.

Intrigued by this link between caffeine and aging, Stanford researchers then gave mice caffeine and observed that the caffeine shut down age-related inflammation.  In particular, this caffeine shut down gene expression of interleukin 1β.

Other Caffeine and Longevity Studies

This Stanford study is not the only study that has linked caffeine to longevity.  For example, it is well-known from other studies that if you give caffeine to worms, flies, or mice that they will live longer.  In mice, caffeine also seems to prevent dementia.

While most people would prefer that worms, flies, or mice don't live longer, there are other studies showing that humans also live longer with natural caffeine.  Indeed, a recent Harvard study of 133,611 people showed that those consuming the highest amounts of natural caffeine lived 12% longer than those not getting any natural caffeine.

Natural vs. Artificial Caffeine

There is a difference between natural and artificial sources of caffeine.  For example, I have yet to see a study which says that drinking soda pop or Red Bull or even eating milk chocolate makes you live longer.  In contrast, there have now been many studies linking dark chocolate, tea, and coffee to longevity.

How might caffeine make you live longer?

Intuitively, it doesn't make sense that caffeine might extend your life.  After all, caffeine raises your blood pressure and heart rate.  These effects would be expected to shorten your life, not extend it.

Perhaps caffeine really has nothing at all to do with longevity.  This could explain why artificial caffeine has never been shown to improve health whereas dark chocolate, tea, or coffee may offer some health benefit.

For example, dark chocolate, tea, and coffee are all high in antioxidants.  Antioxidants are molecules that block free radicals in your body.  Free radicals are byproducts of your body making energy.  Free radical production is also one of the major causes of aging and inflammation.  Outside of fruits and vegetables, dark chocolate, tea, and coffee have some of the highest concentrations of antioxidants measured.

Alternatively, it could also be other metabolites such as theophylline and theobromine which are abundant in natural c...