Caffeine may lower death risk in diabetic women

Drinking coffee or tea may lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer as well as increase lifespan in women with diabetes, researchers have suggested.

The findings showed that women with diabetes who consumed up to 100mg per day of coffee were 51 per cent less likely to die than those who consumed no caffeine.

Also, diabetic women who consumed 100-200mg per day of coffee had a 57 per cent lower risk of death compared with non-consumers, and for those consuming above 200mg per day of coffee the reduced risk of death was 66 per cent.

On the other hand, among women that consumed more caffeine from tea there was an 80 per cent reduced risk of cancer compared with women with zero caffeine consumption from tea.

"Our study showed a dose-dependent protective effect of caffeine consumption on all-cause mortality among women," said Joao Sergio Neves from the University of Porto in Portugal.

However, no association was found between caffeine and men with diabetes, Neves added.

The results were presented at 2017 European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Lisbon.

For the study, the team examined the association between varying levels of caffeine intake -- from coffee, tea and soft drinks -- and mortality in over 3,000 men and women with diabetes in the US.

More than 80 per cent of the world's adult population consume caffeine daily, mostly from coffee and tea.

"However our observational study cannot prove that caffeine reduces the risk of death but only suggests the possibility of such a protective effect," Neves noted.