Cardiometabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke are on the rise. As life expectancy around the world increases, cardiometabolic conditions are becoming a public health issue.

Studies have found that consuming caffeine and beverages that contain caffeine, such as coffee and tea, can reduce the risk of developing a cardiometabolic condition. Until recently, however, no studies had looked at the effect of caffeine and coffee or tea consumption on the risk of developing multiple cardiometabolic conditions or cardiometabolic disease.

People who had three coffee drinks a day had a 48 percent lower risk of developing cardiometabolic disease when compared to those who did not consume caffeine. Caffeinated tea also brought benefits.

That changed when a team led by Chinese researchers found that people who consumed a moderate amount of coffee or caffeine had the lowest risk for developing cardiometabolic disease compared to those who did not consume any or only small amounts of coffee, tea or caffeine.

“These findings highlight that promoting moderate amounts of coffee or caffeine intake as a dietary habit to healthy people may have far-reaching benefits for the prevention of cardiometabolic disease,” the corresponding author on the study, Chaofu Ke, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Soochow University in Suzhou, China, said in a statement.

Data from more than 172,300 participants in the UK Biobank were analyzed to study the effects of caffeine consumption on their risk for developing cardiometabolic disease.

A second line of inquiry reviewed data on the effects of drinking coffee and tea on cardiometabolic disease risk in more than 188,000 Biobank participants. Cardiometabolic disease outcomes were determined through participants' self-reported medical conditions, primary care provider and hospital data and death records linked to the UK Biobank.

People who consumed three coffee drinks a day or 200 to 300 mg a day of caffeine had a 48 percent lower risk of developing cardiometabolic disease compared to those who did not consume caffeine or those who consumed less than 100 mg of caffeine each day. Those who consumed 200 to 300 mg of caffeine a day had an almost 41 percent lower risk.

High levels of tea consumption also brought health benefits. Five or more servings of caffeinated tea each day significantly lowered healthy participants' risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Among people with type 2 diabetes, five or more servings of caffeinated tea also decreased the risk of developing cardiometabolic disease.

The results demonstrate an association between coffee and caffeine consumption and a lower risk of cardiometabolic disease, but, as the researchers point out, they do not prove causality. Further studies are needed to definitively prove that caffeine consumption lowers the risk of cardiometabolic disease and to determine the mechanisms by which it lowers that risk.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.