Study Suggests Drinking Caffeinated Coffee May Reduce Heart Failure

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

“While smoking, age and high blood pressure are among the most well-known heart disease risk factors, unidentified risk factors for heart disease remain,” says 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.

According to “Circulation: Heart Failure,” published on Feb. 9 in the American Heart Association Journal, dietary information from three large, well-known heart disease studies suggests drinking one or more cups of caffeinated coffee may reduce the risk of heart failure.

Coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke are among the top causes of death from heart disease in the U.S.

“The risks and benefits of drinking coffee have been topics of ongoing scientific interest due to the popularity and frequency of consumption worldwide,” added 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.

“Studies reporting associations with outcomes remain relatively limited due to inconsistencies in diet assessment and analytical methodologies, as well as inherent problems with self-reported dietary intake,” said Dr. Van Horn.

Dr. Kao and his colleagues used machine learning through the American Heart Association’s Precision Medicine Platform to examine data from the original cohort of the Framingham Heart Study and referenced it against data from both the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study to help confirm their findings.

Each study included at least 10 years of follow-up, and, collectively, the studies provided information on more than 21,000 U.S. adult participants.

To analyze the outcomes of drinking caffeinated coffee, researchers categorized consumption as 0 cups per day, 1 cup per day, 2 cups per day and at least 3 cups per day. Across the three studies, coffee consumption was self-reported, and no standard unit of measure were available.

The analysis revealed:

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 percent per 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 percent lower in people who drank at least 2 cups a day.

Importantly, drinking decaffeinated coffee appeared to have an opposite effect on heart failure risk – significantly increasing the risk of heart failure in the Framingham Heart Study.

However, in the Cardiovascular Health Study, there was no increase or decrease in risk of heart failure associated with drinking decaffeinated coffee.

According to findings released, when the researchers examined this further, they 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.

“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.,” Dr. Kao.

“The consistent relationship between increasing caffeine consumption and decreasing heart failure risk turns that assumption on its head. However, there is not yet enough clear evidence to recommend increasing coffee consumption to decrease risk of heart disease with the same strength and certainty as stopping smoking, losing weight or exercising.”