Death rates lower in coffee-drinking women

MADRID, June 17 (UPI) -- Women who drink coffee regularly have lower death rates, a benefit that doesn't appear to accrue to men, a Spanish researcher says.

Lead author Esther Lopez-Garcia and colleagues analyzed data from 84,214 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study and 41,736 men who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

The researchers found women consuming two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up period -- which lasted from 1980 to 2004 -- compared with non-drinkers and an 18 percent lower risk of death caused by something other than cancer or heart disease as compared with non-drinkers during follow-up.

For men, this level of consumption was associated with neither a higher nor a lower risk of death during the follow-up period, which lasted from 1986 to 2004.

The findings are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.