Past studies have suggested that coffee affects the arteries adversely by stiffening them and putting excess pressure on the heart; stiffened arteries increases the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke.
So coffee addicts were warned to cut down their consumption of the caffeine-laden drink to 1 to 5 cups a day.
Scientists in their new study found that coffee doesn’t affect the heart adversely. The latest wave of scientific evidence, gathered from a study conducted on more than 8,000 people across the UK shows that drinking five to twenty-five cups of coffee a day is as same as drinking less than a cup a day.
The study was partly funded by the BHF and was presented at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester.
Experts from the Queen Mary University of London divided the 8,412 participants into three groups for the study. The first group was comprised of those who drink less than one cup of coffee a day. The second group was made of those who drink between one and three cups a day. And the third had those who drink more than three cups of coffee a day.
The typical quantity of coffee consumed by the third group was 5 cups, but a couple of participants drank up to two-dozen cups of coffee, per day.
All the participants underwent MRI heart scans and infrared pulse wave tests. The results held correct even with factors like age, weight, and smoking status, thoroughly considered.
A second study conferred at the same conference found that: people admitted to many NHS hospitals with a cardiac arrest over the weekend, did not face any higher risk of dying as compared to the patients admitted during the week.
The associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Professor Metin Avkiran, said that “The study rules out one of the potential detrimental effects of coffee on our arteries”.
Advice on coffee consumption levels had varied over the years. But an umbrella trial by the British Medical Journal, held in 2017, found, “no consistent evidence of harmful associations between coffee consumption and health outcomes, except for those related to pregnancy and for risk of fracture in women”.
Dr. Kenneth Fung, from the Queen Mary University of London, said: “Despite the big reputation of coffee worldwide, distinctive reports could put people off from enjoying it. Whilst we can’t prove a causal link in this study, our research indicates coffee isn’t as bad for the arteries as previous studies would suggest.”
Here are some additional benefits of coffee:
- Coffee is s rich source of antioxidants; antioxidants fight inflammation, an underlying cause of many chronic conditions, including arthritis and atherosclerosis.
- Caffeine can boost short-term memory.
- Coffee may lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Coffee helps with depression and
- Coffee can be healthy for your heart:
A leading study by Dutch scientists, analyzed data collected from more than 37,000 people, over a decade. It showed that moderate coffee drinkers (subjects, who had between two to four cups of coffee daily) had healthier hearts. They also had a lower risk of heart disease as compared to the heavy or light coffee drinkers, and nondrinkers.
So, Coffee lovers can drink a few more cups and not worry about distressing their hearts.
