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A cup of coffee can do a lot more than just giving people a refreshing morning. A new study claims that drinking coffee could help the elderly maintain their muscle strength and minimize the risk of falling and injuring themselves.

As people grow older, their muscle strength deteriorates - a phenomenon known as sarcopenia, which makes even normal chores difficult. For them restoring muscle strength is particularly significant.

In adults, caffeine is known to boost up the muscle power, and hence, sports scientists at Coventry University for the first time looked at whether it had an effect in strengthening muscles in old people as well.

The study was conducted by the researchers on mice and it revealed that it boosted power in elderly mice in two different areas, which is the same effect it has on young adults.

"With the importance of maintaining a physically active lifestyle to preserve health and functional capacity, the performance-enhancing benefit of caffeine could prove beneficial in the aging population," Jason Tallis, the study's primary author was quoted as saying by Mail Online.

For the research, which is scheduled for a presentation on Saturday at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Salzburg, Austria, the scientists took two different types of mouse muscles - a leg muscle and a diaphragm muscle. They tested the performance of the muscles after being dosed with 70 micromolars of caffeine - equivalent to "a couple of espressos," said first author Jason Tallis, a muscle physiologist at Coventry University in England, according to LA times.

The tests were conducted on juvenile, middle aged and old mice.

The test results revealed that mice in their young adulthood and middle age were the ones who benefited the most with caffeine, with a 5% improvement in the leg muscle and 6% in the diaphragm muscle. The improvement in old mice was only a 3% and 2% boost up and also, the very young mice too just showed a 1% and 2% improvement.

The study shows that although caffeine does not do wonders on muscles, and though it is relatively less effective in old people, it certainly does give a jolt to their muscles and that might actually be helpful. An intake of coffee might be more useful with an exercise regime for those elderly who have limited movement in their body.
Also, the research is conducted on mice and not on human muscles.

"Despite a reduced effect in the elderly, caffeine may still provide performance-enhancing benefits. Hopefully this will encourage people to do those human studies," Tallis added.

But then there are studies which have shown that excessive caffeine intake lead to a deficiency of calcium in the body which is a much required nutrient for bone strengthening and may also increase blood pressure in people.