Updated June 08, 2015.
By DrRich
In a large, long-term study published in the April 24 on-line issue of Circulation, investigators from the Harvard Medical School report that drinking up to 6 cups or more of coffee per day did not increase the risk of coronary artery disease.
Researchers began following over 44,000 men and almost 85,000 women with no history of cardiac disease or cancer in the 1980s. Each participant was questioned with initial enrollment, and then every 2 - 4 years, about their coffee consumption, and the follow-up was continued until 2000.
Over 2100 cases of coronary artery disease occurred in these patients during the average 14-year follow-up period. The investigators found that, when the data was adjusted for age, smoking, weight, diabetes, and alcohol consumption, no additional cardiac risk could be attributed to coffee drinking. Furthermore, they found no evidence that coffee caused elevations in blood lipid levels. Similar results were seen in individuals who drank decaffeinated coffee or tea.
The bottom line: after following a very large number of individuals for a very long time and doing an extensive statistical analysis, there was no evidence that coffee drinking was detrimental from a cardiac standpoint. The authors of this report could not find any reason to urge people to avoid coffee, though they could not find a reason to recommend it, either.
It ought to be noted that this study measured the effect of coffee, not of caffeine. Caffeine has been reported to increase the release of fatty acids, to decrease sensitivity to insulin, and to transiently increase blood pressure.
These effects are unfriendly to cardiac risk. This latest study would suggest that either these potentially detrimental effects of caffeine are simply insignificant - or that other substances in the coffee counterbalance them. Coffee contains many chemicals in addition to caffeine, and some of these have been shown to benefic cardiac health.
So, while coffee drinking appears cardiac safe (at least this month), this is not to say that if you choose to ingest your caffeine by drinking volumes of Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper (which also, by the way, provide lots of empty calories), you would get the same green light from the Harvard investigators.
By DrRich
In a large, long-term study published in the April 24 on-line issue of Circulation, investigators from the Harvard Medical School report that drinking up to 6 cups or more of coffee per day did not increase the risk of coronary artery disease.
Researchers began following over 44,000 men and almost 85,000 women with no history of cardiac disease or cancer in the 1980s. Each participant was questioned with initial enrollment, and then every 2 - 4 years, about their coffee consumption, and the follow-up was continued until 2000.
Over 2100 cases of coronary artery disease occurred in these patients during the average 14-year follow-up period. The investigators found that, when the data was adjusted for age, smoking, weight, diabetes, and alcohol consumption, no additional cardiac risk could be attributed to coffee drinking. Furthermore, they found no evidence that coffee caused elevations in blood lipid levels. Similar results were seen in individuals who drank decaffeinated coffee or tea.
The bottom line: after following a very large number of individuals for a very long time and doing an extensive statistical analysis, there was no evidence that coffee drinking was detrimental from a cardiac standpoint. The authors of this report could not find any reason to urge people to avoid coffee, though they could not find a reason to recommend it, either.
It ought to be noted that this study measured the effect of coffee, not of caffeine. Caffeine has been reported to increase the release of fatty acids, to decrease sensitivity to insulin, and to transiently increase blood pressure.
These effects are unfriendly to cardiac risk. This latest study would suggest that either these potentially detrimental effects of caffeine are simply insignificant - or that other substances in the coffee counterbalance them. Coffee contains many chemicals in addition to caffeine, and some of these have been shown to benefic cardiac health.
So, while coffee drinking appears cardiac safe (at least this month), this is not to say that if you choose to ingest your caffeine by drinking volumes of Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper (which also, by the way, provide lots of empty calories), you would get the same green light from the Harvard investigators.