Reacción a "Moderate coffee consumption may slow biological ageing in people with severe mental disorders, according to a study"

The study conducted by Mlakar et al. analyses, in a cohort of patients with schizophrenia and severe mood disorders, the relationship between coffee consumption and telomere length as a marker of cellular aging. Previous studies have linked depression, post-traumatic stress, and psychiatric disorders with increased biological age, although there are discrepancies depending on the methods used. The authors found an inverted J-shaped relationship: moderate coffee consumption (up to four cups) is associated with longer telomeres, equivalent to a lower biological age. In other words, they found an optimal effect with the consumption of four cups, while this benefit disappears with five or more cups per day.

Although the study is an interesting start in exploring the role of coffee in the health of psychiatric patients, the work has significant limitations that mean it should be interpreted with caution. First, as it is a cross-sectional and observational design, causality cannot be established. The association observed could be due to other uncontrolled factors in the study, such as the patient's overall lifestyle or metabolic health. Nor is any distinction made regarding the type of coffee. The decline in benefit after five cups could be explained by the consumption of instant coffee, which, according to previous studies in the general population, has a negative effect on telomeres, unlike filtered coffee. Furthermore, although the authors suggest that bioactive and antioxidant compounds are responsible for the benefit—rather than caffeine itself—the study did not measure markers of oxidation or inflammation to confirm this, nor did it investigate the mechanisms that may be behind this effect.

In conclusion, this is an interesting study that opens the door to investigating coffee as part of the lifestyle in psychiatry, but it cannot be concluded that it is justified to 'prescribe' coffee for psychiatric illnesses. The most prudent approach is to integrate these findings into a broader context: maintaining an active lifestyle and a healthy dietary pattern, such as the Mediterranean diet (which includes moderate coffee consumption, preferably not instant), remains the most robust strategy for reducing biological age and maintaining a healthier life.