According to a study, drinking coffee may help your heart and extend your life

Source: CNN
By Kristen Rogers, CNN
Published 12:22 PM EDT, Fri March 25, 2022

Contrary to concerns held by some medical professionals and members of the public, drinking coffee may help protect your heart rather than causing or exacerbating existing issues.

According to three research abstracts published Thursday, drinking two to three cups of coffee per day has been linked to a 10% to 15% lower chance of developing heart disease, heart failure, a cardiac rhythm issue, or passing away before your time.

“Because coffee can quicken heart rate, some people worry that drinking it could trigger or worsen certain heart issues. This is where general medical advice to stop drinking coffee may come from,” Dr. Peter M. Kistler, the study’s senior author, said in a statement. Kistler is head of clinical electrophysiology research at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and head of electrophysiology at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

“We found coffee drinking had either a neutral effect – meaning that it did no harm – or was associated with benefits to heart health,” said Kistler, a leading arrhythmia expert who is also a professor of medicine at both the University of Melbourne and Monash University.

Kistler and the other researchers used information from UK Biobank, which tracks the health outcomes of more than 500,000 people for at least ten years, for all of the investigations. Participants who signed up for the registry disclosed their daily coffee consumption, which ranged from one cup to six or more. 

The goal of the current study was to investigate the associations between coffee consumption and heart rhythm issues (arrhythmias), cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke, as well as overall and heart-related mortality in both heart disease-affected and heart-asymptomatic individuals.

COFFEE DRINKING AND HEART HEALTH

The first research focused on more than 382,500 healthy adults with an average age of 57. The researchers discovered that participants who drank two to three cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of eventually having the heart issues the study focused on. The risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or having a stroke was lowest among those who consumed about one cup of coffee per day.

Another study examined the connections between other coffee varieties, including decaffeinated, caffeinated instant, and caffeinated ground, and the same health consequences. There was no mention of whether the decaf coffee was ground or instant. “I suppose there may have been a perception that less expensive ‘instant’ coffee may be less beneficial than ‘ground’ coffee which might be seen as ‘purer,’ but this was not the case in our study,” Kistler added.

The risk of developing arrhythmia, heart disease or failure, or stroke was found to be reduced in people who drank one to five cups of ground or instant coffee per day. Everyday consumption of two to three cups of coffee, regardless of the type, was linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and early death.

In a third trial, participants with an existing arrhythmia or a specific form of cardiovascular illness were the ones who were analyzed. No amount of coffee consumption was observed to be related to the occurrence of arrhythmias in persons with cardiovascular disease. Coffee consumption, specifically one cup per day, was linked to a lower risk of early death in persons with arrhythmia.

“Clinicians generally have some apprehension about people with known cardiovascular disease or arrhythmias continuing to drink coffee, so they often err on the side of caution and advise them to stop drinking it altogether due to fears that it may trigger dangerous heart rhythms,” Kistler said in the statement. “But our study shows that regular coffee intake is safe and could be part of a healthy diet for people with heart disease.”

Dr. David Kao, however, said that he doesn’t “think there is sufficient information in that abstract to support that assertion.” Kao wasn’t involved in the research and is an associate professor in the divisions of cardiology and bioinformatics & personalized medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz.

“It is very important to understand what was adjusted for in the analysis,” said Kao, who is also the medical director of the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine. “The obvious one is age – if young people who have a lower risk of CVD (cardiovascular disease) drink the most coffee, the apparent benefit of coffee may just reflect the effect of age. The authors don’t mention what they adjusted for, so one has to be cautious.”

The news release for the analyses, however, said that the researchers controlled for exercise, alcohol, smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure, as those factors could influence heart health and longevity. But the authors had no control over dietary factors.

“The problem is that the design of studies like this is always going to be vulnerable to something that we call … selection bias – that people who end up drinking five cups of coffee a day may be fundamentally different than the people who drink one cup a day or who drink decaf,” said Dr. Lee Schwamm, vice president of digital patient experience and virtual care at Mass General Brigham in Boston.

Some people experience negative effects after drinking coffee if they’re more sensitive, while others have an espresso before bed and still go right to sleep, he said.

The analyses do “provide further evidence that moderate coffee consumption does not increase risk of heart disease and does not need to be stopped if one has heart disease, even if it is an abnormal heart rhythm,” Kao said.

The research will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st annual Scientific Session on April 2-3.

What heart patients should know

The research didn’t establish a causal relationship between coffee drinking and health conditions. But “there is a whole range of mechanisms through which coffee may reduce mortality and have these favorable effects on cardiovascular disease,” Kistler said in the news release.

Whether caffeine is responsible for any health benefits from coffee isn’t clear, Kao said. “There are many biologically active compounds in coffee specifically that could play a role,” he said.

These compounds could help reduce inflammation, inhibit the gut’s absorption of fat, block receptors involved with abnormal heart rhythms and reduce oxidative stress, Kistler said. Oxidative stress is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body. Free radicals are unstable molecules from environmental sources such as cigarette smoke or pesticides, which can harm the body’s cells.

If you’re wondering whether you can drink coffee depending on current or future risk of heart problems, talk with your doctor, said Schwamm, who is also a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

“People should not interpret this as an endorsement that drinking coffee will increase their life span,” he added. “By far, the most important things to extend the life and the quality of life in those patients will be to have a really thoughtful plan with their doctor about physical activity, medications to control cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, not smoking (and more).”