Coffee Health Benefits: Studies Find Drinking Coffee Extends Your Life

Pour another cup of java, coffee lovers. Two new studies indicate that the health benefits of drinking coffee include reducing the risk of death.

The studies, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, note that drinking three to five cups of caffeinated (no more than 400 mg of caffeine) or decaf coffee was associated with a longer life. While the journal noted that the findings are still "premature," daily coffee intake "is not associated with adverse health effects in adults and can be incorporated into a healthy diet.”

Veronica Setiawan, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, explained to TODAY: “The key message is that people can drink coffee. It seems there’s no long-term harm."

One study found that people who drank two to four cups of coffee daily had an 18 percent lower risk of death, as compared to non coffee drinkers. Those who drink coffee had a reduced risk of death from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, kidney and respiratory disease.