Keep calm and drink tea, or coffee, because these two drinks might help you live longer.

Thanks to a new study from Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Kunming Institute of Botany in China, Chinese scientists have found that drinking tea and coffee is associated with life-prolonging. Simply put, both drinks could help you to live much longer.

Image: phoeniciafoods.com
Image: phoeniciafoods.com

According to the research, a beneficial compound in coffee and tea called chlorogenic acid (CGA) has been shown to increase the age of worms up to the human equivalent of 175 years.

Chlorogenic acid which also can be obtained in prunes, potatoes and aubergines, has been found to provide many health benefits according to previous studies. It reportedly improves brain functions, heals wounds faster, and decreases the risk of cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Professor Luo Huai-Rong and fellow scientists investigated on further effects of the compound by feeding chlorogenic acid to C aenorhabditis elegans, a type of roundworm with a similar ageing process to mammals and humans during the experiment. They found that chlorogenic acid could manipulate the functioning of certain genes to stimulate insulin secretion and prevent the build-up of fat in an animal’s body, which is closely linked to the ageing process.

Image: santaynezvacationrentals.com
Image: santaynezvacationrentals.com

The passage below is an excerpt from the study.

“The research on these two drinks has been revealing more and more in common from chemical components to their impacts on human health. The findings might serve as a starting point for developing foods with health-giving additives or pharmaceutical interventions in the ageing process.”

While chlorogenic acid may help extend human life, drinking tea or coffee alone will not guarantee a healthy life of 175 years. Bear in mind that the ageing process is also influenced by a person’s lifestyles, eating habits, and genes.

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