Don't regret your morning cup of Joe. It may just be the perfect thing for your heart. A new study circulated by the American Heart Association suggests that drinking one or more cups of caffeinated coffee may reduce heart failure risks. The study, however, found that drinking decaffeinated coffee did not have the same benefit and may be associated with an increased risk for heart failure. There is, however, not enough clear evidence yet to recommend increasing coffee consumption to decrease the risk of heart diseases with the same strength and certainty as stopping smoking, losing weight or exercising.
David P. Kao, M.D., senior author of the study, assistant professor of cardiology and medical director at the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado, said, “While smoking, age, and high blood pressure are among the most well-known heart disease risk factors, unidentified risk factors for heart disease remain.”
Linda Van Horn, Ph.D., R.D., professor and Chief of the Department of Preventive Medicine's Nutrition Division at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and member of the American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee, said, “The risks and benefits of drinking coffee have been topics of ongoing scientific interest due to the popularity and frequency of consumption worldwide.”
Researchers categorized consumption as 0 cups per day, 1 cup, 2 cups, and 3 cups per day. Coffee consumption was self-reported across the three studies and no standard unit of the measure was available. In all three studies, people who reported drinking one or more cups of caffeinated coffee had an associated decreased long-term heart failure risk.
In the Framingham Heart and the Cardiovascular Health studies, the risk of heart failure over the course of decades decreased by 5 to 12 per cent cup per day of coffee, compared with no coffee consumption. In the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the risk of heart failure did not change between 0 to 1 cup per day of coffee, however, it was about 30 per cent lower in people who drank at least 2 cups a day.
The first study revealed drinking decaffeinated coffee appeared to have a opposite effect on heart failure risk, significantly increasing the risk of heart failure. In the second study, there was no increase or decrease in risk of heart failure associated with drinking decaffeinated coffee. On further examination, researchers found caffeine consumption from any source appeared to be associated with decreased heart failure risk, and caffeine was at least part of the reason for the apparent benefit from drinking more coffee.
Kao said, “The association between caffeine and heart failure risk reduction was surprising. Coffee and caffeine are often considered by the general population to be “bad” for the heart because people associate them with palpitations, high blood pressure, etc. The consistent relationship between increasing caffeine consumption and decreasing heart failure risk turns that assumption on its head.”
The bottom line is, enjoy coffee in moderation as part of an overall heart-healthy dietary pattern that meets recommendations for fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and products low in sodium, saturated fat and added sugars.
