Your Coffee Habit Could Actually Help Slow Aging.
Your morning coffee is supposed to speed things up: wake you up, sharpen your focus and put a little pep in your step. But new research suggests that it could also do the opposite to your biological clock — potentially slowing the pace of aging.
Caffeine appears to trigger an ancient cellular energy system involved in growth, stress and DNA repair, new research says — processes very closely tied to aging. With science linking more health benefits to caffeine, from better heart health and a lower risk of dementia,this pathway might just be the key force behind it.
The research, published in the scientific journal Microbial Cell, examined the effect of caffeine on fission yeast cells. These single-celled organisms share biological features with human cells and are often used to study basic cellular functions.
What did researchers find? Caffeine seems to activate a cellular system, AMPK, that helps cells sense when energy is low. The AMPK process “kicks in to help them cope” with depleted energy, said senior author Dr. Charalampos (Babis) Rallis, Reader in Genetics, Genomics and Fundamental Cell Biology at Queen Mary University of London, in a news release.
Caffeine, Dr. Rallis explained, “helps flip that switch.”
When caffeine works with AMPK, researchers found that a handful of cellular processes seem to reap the benefits. That includes cell growth, stress responses and DNA repair. The last one is especially intriguing. DNA damage naturally builds up as you age, and if cells can’t fix it, you’re more likely to develop disease. Anything that helps with that repair process — like, potentially, caffeine — could keep you healthier as you age.
Of course, the study doesn’t show that drinking coffee will make you live longer, per se. More so, it shows that caffeine activates a system, shared by yeast and human cells that regulates energy, stress, growth and repair — which all contribute to the way cells age.
And beyond your morning cup of coffee or tea, the study also opens up new pathways for research. Dr. John-Patrick Alao, the postdoctoral research scientist who led the study, said future inquiries could explore “how we might trigger these effects more directly — with diet, lifestyle, or new medicines.”
In the meantime, we have another clue to how caffeine gives our bodies a boost, far beyond the morning perk-up we know and love.