Tea and coffee drinkers stay stronger in old age.
Drinking tea on a regular basis can keep you healthy in old age
A new study has revealed that consuming the two beverages on a daily basis in midlife is associated with a reduced likelihood of frailty in a person's later years.
A team from the National University of Singapore studied 12,000 participants - aged 45 to 74 - over a period of 20 years and found that those who drank four or more cups of coffee per day had significantly reduced odds of physical frailty compared to those who did not drink coffee daily.
Those who drank black and green tea regularly were also at reduced risk compared to non-tea drinkers.
Professor Koh Woon Puay, of the Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the University, said: "Coffee and tea are mainstay beverages in many societies around the world, including Singapore.
"Our studies show that the consumption of these caffeinated drinks at midlife may be associated with a reduced likelihood of physical frailty in late life.
"However, further studies are still needed to confirm these longitudinal associations, and to investigate if these effects on physical frailty are mediated by caffeine or other chemical compounds."