“Everyone has a price, the important thing is to find out what it is.” That’s so commonly said in business that one may wonder why those words come with quotation marks.

It’s because the so-called businessman most often attributed to having said them, Pablo Escobar, is really “a notorious Colombian drug lord,” according to none other than the Encyclopedia Britannica. “Arguably the world’s most powerful drug trafficker in the 1980s and early 90s” until he was gunned down by police at the age of 44 after escaping from prison.

But this article is not about a guy who went to his grave known as The King of Cocaine. It’s about you, me, and coffee and begins with the “price” others are willing to pay when the currency is sorts of behaviors that lead to additional years of healthy life.

In a survey performed by Drip Hydration, the global leader in in-home IV therapy, pollsters asked, “What would you give up to add 10 extra healthy years to your life?” Forty percent of respondents said they’d give up all junk food and alcohol, 47 percent said they’d swallow 10 supplement pills daily, and 48 percent said they’d abstain from forever coffee.

Now I’ve done the first two for my entire adult life, so they strike me as no sacrifice whatsoever. But no coffee? Forever? That’s where I might have to draw the line.

According to the National Coffee Association, 66 percent of American adults drink an average of 3 cups per day, so there’s a pretty good chance you feel that way too. Which is why we both should be thrilled about the results of a study published in the November 2025 issue of BMJ Mental Health.

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College in London reviewed data accrued on 436 adults that was part of a prior 11-year study performed in Norway that concluded in 2018. While it certainly needs to be noted that all the participants had severe mental health issues, this detail was factored into the researchers’ statistical analysis, as was the fact that 77 percent of the participants were cigarette smokers.

What’s most important here is that regardless of your state of mental health, your telomeres — the protective DNA caps at the end of your chromosomes — are highly sensitive to two of the primary reasons we age, oxidative stress and inflammation. So the degree to which yours have shortened indicates your biological age.

People with severe mental health issues tend to have shorter telomeres than the general population — as well as a 15-year-shorter lifespan — which is why the original research measured the length of theirs. And why the second group of researchers focused upon those measurements and one specific interview question asked throughout the 11-year study: “How much coffee a day are you currently consuming?”

The double check revealed “patients consuming up to 4 cups of coffee per day had telomere lengths comparable to a biological age 5 years younger than non-coffee drinkers.” While this doesn’t establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, it does add to the growing number of reasons why moderate daily coffee consumption is beneficial for virtually everyone except the caffeine-sensitive.

And especially beneficial for those looking to actively battle the sort of cognitive decline that leads to dementia.

Another paper that’s essentially a double check of previous studies was published online by JAMA on Feb. 9. This one recalled data gathered from 131,821 participants involved in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study with the researchers setting out to learn whether or not long-term intake of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee could lower the risk of dementia. They found that decaffeinated coffee didn’t, but that those who consumed about 2 to 3 cups per day of caffeinated coffee had an 18 percent lower risk of dementia compared to those who consumed little or no caffeine.

FYI: This new study also assessed caffeinated tea and found 1 to 2 cups per day lead to a 15 percent lower risk of dementia.

While considering these new findings, don’t forget that prior studies have linked moderate coffee consumption to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and a number of cancers, including liver and breast. Or that one study found Americans who drink 1 to 2 cups of coffee per day live on average 2 years longer than those who don’t.

Yes, the King of Cocaine was correct in saying everyone has a price, but when it comes to your health, everything does not. Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day cups, for instance, has no apparent charge.

And qualifies you for a number of great rebates.