Coffee is one of the world’s most popular drinks, but its effects on heart health have been debated for years.
Because coffee contains caffeine, many people worry that drinking it every day could raise blood pressure or put extra strain on the heart.
Research from Semmelweis University in Hungary offers a more reassuring picture. The study found that drinking up to three cups of coffee a day was linked to a lower risk of stroke, death from heart and blood vessel disease, and death from any cause.
The researchers used information from the UK Biobank, a large health database that follows hundreds of thousands of people in the United Kingdom. Their analysis included 468,629 adults who did not have diagnosed heart disease when the study began.
The participants were about 56 years old on average, and slightly more than half were women. Researchers followed their health for around 10 to 15 years and compared their outcomes with their usual coffee drinking habits.
About 22% of the participants did not regularly drink coffee. Nearly 58% drank between half a cup and three cups a day, while about 19% reported drinking more than three cups each day.
The clearest benefits appeared among people who drank light-to-moderate amounts. Compared with people who did not regularly drink coffee, these participants had a 12% lower risk of dying from any cause.
They also had a 17% lower risk of dying from heart and blood vessel disease and a 21% lower risk of having a stroke. These findings remained important even after researchers considered several other factors that could affect health.
The team also wanted to know whether coffee drinking was linked to visible differences in the heart. They studied heart MRI scans from more than 30,000 participants, allowing them to examine the heart’s structure and how well it worked.
Regular coffee drinkers showed signs of healthier heart size and function compared with people who did not regularly drink coffee. The researchers suggested that these differences could reflect beneficial changes in the heart over time.
Coffee is much more than caffeine. It contains many natural plant compounds, including antioxidants, that may affect inflammation, blood vessels, and the way the body processes sugar and fats.
However, this type of study cannot prove that coffee itself caused the lower risks. Coffee drinkers and non-drinkers may differ in other ways, and researchers cannot remove every possible difference when studying people’s long-term habits.
The amount and type of coffee can matter as well. A plain cup of coffee is very different from a large drink containing high amounts of sugar, cream, or flavored syrup, which can add many extra calories.
People also respond differently to caffeine. Some can drink coffee without problems, while others experience a racing heartbeat, anxiety, stomach discomfort, or trouble sleeping, particularly when coffee is consumed later in the day.
The research was led by Dr. Judit Simon and colleagues at Semmelweis University. The findings were presented at ESC Congress 2021, the annual scientific meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.
The results add to growing evidence that moderate coffee drinking can fit into a heart-healthy lifestyle for many people. They do not mean that everyone needs to start drinking coffee, but for people who already enjoy a few cups a day, the findings provide some encouraging news.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies that whole grain foods could help increase longevity, and vitamin D supplements strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about natural coconut sugar that could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness, and whey and soy protein may reduce inflammation in older people.
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