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Behind The Mic With Joe Mathieu: Can Too Much Coffee Kill You?

BOSTON (CBS) - One thing is for sure. If this study is correct I am a dead man.

The Mayo Clinic did the research. They found men under 55 who drink more than four cups a day are 56-percent more likely to die from any cause.

Women in the same age range had a two-fold greater risk of dying than other women.

The study looked at tens of thousands of people for the better part of 30-years.

Now for full disclosure I'm writing this with exactly five cups of coffee in my system so if I drop dead you'll know what to tell my family.

But wait a minute. What about all the other studies that found coffee was actually good for you? Just like the studies that said chocolate and wine are good for you.

And even this study notes that coffee is a major source of antioxidants.

But there's more you should know about this study. Researchers also did not adjust for things like people's diet, marital status or other socioeconomic factors.

And just this morning I read about another study in the Atlantic, this one led by the National Institutes of Health, showing men who drink more than four to five cups of coffee actually cut their risk for death by 12-percent. Results were even better for women.

So who are we supposed to believe? Well that's up to you. But I'm accentuating the positive on this one. Because if the death warning is true, I'm not stopping anyway.

Follow Joe on Twitter @joemathieuwbz

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