Coffee drinking linked to lower risk of death, study shows

Coffee fans rejoice: a new study ties drinking your morning fuel with a reduced risk of death.

The large study, published online Monday in the journal Circulation, found that consuming coffee is linked with a lower risk of dying from heart disease, stroke and diabetes, as well as neurological diseases and suicide, The New York Times reports.

It hardly mattered whether the coffee was regular or decaf -- but the positive results only applied to nonsmokers, according to the Times.

Nonsmokers who drank a cup a day had a 6 percent reduced risk of death, the Times reported. One to three cups a day brought an 8 percent reduced risk, three to five cups had a 15 percent reduced risk, and more than 5 cups meant a 12 percent reduced risk.

The study tracked more than 200,000 nurses and doctors for up to 30 years.

The researchers caution in their study that the connection they highlight "remains inconclusive," and that they did not directly show a cause-and-effect "relationship between coffee and mortality."

But, they write, results from this and previous studies "indicate that coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy lifestyle."