Aging is something that, regrettably, comes part and parcel with the human condition. And while is a lot of good things that come with age—wisdom, experience, an increasing ability to not give a fuck—these old bones weren’t built to last forever, and there comes a point when the body starts to deteriorate.
Luckily, there’s coffee. New research shows that drinking coffee is helpful in limiting muscle loss and strength associated with aging.
As reported by Medical Xpress, the new study is the work of a “research consortium” led by Nestle Research in Switzerland and the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, with international collaboration by the Universities of Southampton, Melbourne, Tehran, South Alabama, Toyama, and Copenhangen.
For the study, published recently in the journal Nature Metabolism, the research group sought to find way to counteract Sarcopenia, a condition during the aging process whereby changes at the cellular level weaken muscles, leading to “accelerated loss of muscle mass and strength.” During Sarcopenia, a “cellular cofactor” NAD+ decreases and the mitochondria produces less energy.
During the study, researchers noted a decrease in the substance trigonelline in individuals as they aged. They discovered that trigonelline is a precursor to NAD+, meaning consuming trigonelline will result in a higher production of NAD+.
Coffee, it turns out, has trigonelline naturally occurring in it. Fenugreek does as well. When provided in pre-clinical trials, consuming trigonelline led not only to higher NAD+ levels but increase mitochondrial activity, which in turn contributed to muscle function and maintenance during the aging process.
It appears that, more than just giving aging coffee drinkers the feeling of having more energy, coffee actually contains a naturally-occurring substance that leads to an increase in the energy needed to fight against muscle loss. So while you can’t exactly live forever, you can make the most out of the time you have by drinking coffee and staying spry.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
