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With age, people tend to become more frail but, according to a new study, you could drink your way to stronger health.
Professor Koh Woon Puay said: “Our studies show that consumption of caffeinated drinks at midlife may be associated with a reduced likelihood of physical frailty in late life.”
To be specific, the drinks thought to have a beneficial impact are tea and coffee.
It is not known, however, if it’s the caffeine content of such beverages that lead to the study’s results.
Professor Puay said: “Further studies are still needed… to investigate if these effects on physical frailty are mediated by caffeine or other chemical compounds.”
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The study details
The National University of Singapore recruited 12,000 participants for its research.
All participants were aged between 45 to 74, who were first asked about their drinking habits in midlife, around 53 years of age.
They were asked about their habits of drinking caffeine-containing beverages in terms of frequency.
In a 20-year follow-up period, the same participants, averaging the age of 73, were asked: “Do you feel full of energy?”
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Moreover, their weight was taken into account as well as the time it took them to get out of a chair to a fixed point a few metres away.
The participants also had their handgrip strength examined by the researchers.
There were four components that contributed to physical frailty in the study, which were:
- Weight loss
- Feeling of exhaustion
- Slowness
- Weakness.
The study’s results
Drinking coffee, black tea or green tea at midlife was associated with a reduced likelihood of frailty in later life.
Those who drank four or more cups of coffee daily had significantly reduced odds of physical frailty in later life compared to those who didn’t drink coffee every day.
People who drank black tea or green tea daily also had significantly reduced odds of physical frailty compared to non-tea drinkers.
As Professor Puay said earlier, though, further research is needed to strengthen this association.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
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