Coffee may cut heart failure risk
Wednesday June 27th, 2012
A moderate intake of coffee many help to protect against developing heart failure, researchers say today.
Earlier
studies on coffee and heart failure show that moderate regular coffee
drinking may be beneficial, but too much could raise the risk.
Researchers led by Dr Murray Mittleman of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston, USA, reviewed five reliable studies that included a total of 6,522 heart failure events among 140,220 male and female participants.
Moderate consumption was defined as four Northern European servings per day, or about two typical eight-ounce American servings (which may be weaker). Excessive consumption was defined as ten Northern European servings, or four to five coffees American servings.
"We found that moderate consumption may actually protect against heart failure by as much as 11 per cent," said Dr Mittleman. "On the other hand, excessive coffee drinking has no benefit and may even be dangerous."
Details are published in the journal Circulation Heart Failure.
Co-author Elizabeth Mostofsky added: "There are many factors that play into a person's risk of heart failure, but moderate coffee consumption doesn't appear to be one of them. This is good news for coffee drinkers, of course, but it also may warrant changes to the current heart failure prevention guidelines, which suggest that coffee drinking may be risky for heart patients."
The cause of this effect may be a tolerance to caffeine among frequent coffee drinkers, putting them at reduced risk of high blood pressure. There is also a known link to lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
Victoria Taylor of the British Heart Foundation commented: "It's often assumed that coffee is associated with heart problems, but this review suggests that for moderate drinkers this isn’t necessarily the case."
Habitual Coffee Consumption and Risk of Heart Failure: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis. Mostofsky, E. et al. Circulation Heart Failure June 27 2012 doi: CIRCHF/2012/967299
Tags: Diet & Food | Heart Health | North America
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