Caffeine may flip an ancient cellular switch linked to slower aging

Your morning coffee may be doing more than helping you wake up.

Research from Queen Mary University of London suggests that caffeine can activate an ancient cellular energy system involved in growth, stress resistance, and DNA repair. Those processes are closely tied to aging, which could help explain why caffeine has been linked to potential health benefits in earlier studies.

The findings come from the Cellular Ageing and Senescence laboratory at Queen Mary University of London's Centre for Molecular Cell Biology and were published in Microbial Cell .

Caffeine is the world's most widely used neuroactive compound, meaning it affects the nervous system and brain activity. Most people know it for boosting alertness, but scientists have also been interested in its possible connection to a lower risk of some age-related diseases.

What has been less clear is how caffeine might produce those effects inside cells.