Drinking more than 28 cups of coffee a week may be harmful for people younger than 55, according to a study.
According to USA Today, a study published online on Thursday in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings stated men younger than 55 who drank more than 28 cups of coffee a week (four cups a day) were 56 percent more likely to have died from any cause. Women in the same age range were reported to have a lesser risk of dying.
According to the study, the higher death risk among younger adults are not clear since experts through the years have found both health benefits and problems associated with coffee.
The study, looked at 43,727 men and women ages 20-87 from 1971 to 2002.
After following up with the study participants for a median of 17 years, 2,512 people had died; which was 87.5 percent of the men and 12.5 percent of the women.
"Drinking more than four cups of coffee a day may endanger health," said Xuemei Sui, assistant professor of exercise science with the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, according to USA Today.
Sui defines a cup of coffee as 6 to 8 ounces. Sui said the caffeine in coffee can elevate heart rate and raise blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Coffee is known for being a major source of antioxidants. The study did not find a significant association between coffee consumption and heart disease death.
According to Sui, further research is needed to look at any connection between coffee and cancer.
"Coffee is a complex mixture of chemicals consisting of thousands of components. Recent research has found that coffee is one of the major sources of antioxidants in the diet, and has potential beneficial effects on inflammation," the researchers wrote in the study, according to the Huffington Post. "However, it is also well known that coffee has potential adverse effects because of caffeine's potential to stimulate the release of epinephrine, inhibit insulin activity, and increase blood pressure and homocysteine levels."
The study did not find a higher death risk for adults 55 and older. According to USA Today, the study might be bias, since the research did not include unhealthy older people because they might have already died.
According to USA Today, a 2012 study that found that coffee drinkers ages 50-71 had a lower risk of death than their peers who did not consume coffee.Joseph DeRupo, a spokesman for the National Coffee Association of USA, said the new study "presents findings that are out of step with prevailing science as well as with widely accepted research methods."
