A new study suggests that drinking coffee prolongs your life.

Another Cup? More Coffee Could Be Linked to Longer Life Span

Coffee lovers may not have to feel that familiar pang of guilt when pouring themselves yet another cup of joe for the day.

A new study found that drinking coffee, even more than 8 cups a day, was linked with a lower risk of death within a 10-year follow-up period. However, the researchers stressed that the study only found an association with coffee and longevity and didn't prove that coffee leads to a longer life.

"Although these findings may reassure coffee drinkers, these results are from an observational study and should be interpreted cautiously," said lead study author Erikka Loftfield, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

As a part of the Biobank study, people were asked how many cups of coffee they drank daily, including decaf. The participants also answered questions about their general health, education, and smoking and drinking habits. Researchers additionally sampled the subjects' DNA.

In a 10-year follow-up period, around 14,000 people in the study died (the leading causes of death were cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory diseases). The researchers found that the more cups of coffee people drank, the less likely they were to die during the study period. Though there were slight differences among the types of coffee people drank, the results generally held true for instant, ground and decaf coffee.

That decaf coffee was associated with longevity "suggest[s] that the many other compounds in coffee, besides caffeine, may be responsible," Loftfield told Live Science.

When the researchers looked at the participants' genetic data, they identified four gene variations that were known to be associated with caffeine metabolism, or how the body breaks down caffeine. Some prior studies had suggested that people with these gene variations could be at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, Loftfield said.

But in the new study, the researchers found no link between having these variations and a person's risk of death over the study period.