Drinking coffee might keep us up at night, but new research has given us a
reason to sleep easy knowing that the popular drink isn’t as bad for our
arteries as some previous studies would suggest.
The research from Queen Mary University of London has shown that drinking
coffee, including in people who drink up to 25 cups a day, is not associated
with having stiffer arteries.
The research, led by Professor Steffen Petersen, was presented today at the
British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Conference in Manchester and part-funded
by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Arteries carry blood containing oxygen and nutrients from your heart to the
rest of your body. If they become stiff, it can increase the workload on the
heart and increase a person’s chance of having a heart attack or stroke.
The study of over 8,000 people in the UK debunks previous studies that
claimed drinking coffee increases arterial stiffness. Previous suggestions that
drinking coffee leads to stiffer arteries are inconsistent and could be limited
by lower participant numbers, according to the team behind this new research.
Coffee consumption was categorised into three groups for the study. Those
who drink less than one cup a day, those who drink between one and three cups a
day and those who drink more than three. People who consumed more than 25 cups
of coffee a day were excluded, but no increased stiffening of arteries was
associated with those who drank up to this high limit when compared with those
who drank less than one cup a day.
The associations between drinking coffee and artery stiffness measures were
corrected for contributing factors like age, gender, ethnicity, smoking status,
height, weight, how much alcohol someone drank, what they ate and high blood
pressure.
Of the 8,412 participants who underwent MRI heart scans and infrared pulse
wave tests, the research showed that moderate and heavy coffee drinkers were
most likely to be male, smoke, and consume alcohol regularly.
Dr Kenneth Fung, who led the data analysis for the research at Queen Mary
University of London, said:
“Despite the huge popularity of coffee worldwide, different reports could
put people off from enjoying it. Whilst we can’t prove a causal link in this
study, our research indicates coffee isn’t as bad for the arteries as previous
studies would suggest.
“Although our study included individuals who drink up to 25 cups a day, the
average intake amongst the highest coffee consumption group was 5 cups a day.
We would like to study these people more closely in our future work so that we
can help to advise safe limits.”
Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart
Foundation, said:
“Understanding the impact that coffee has on our heart and circulatory
system is something that researchers and the media have had brewing for some
time.
“There are several conflicting studies saying different things about
coffee, and it can be difficult to filter what we should believe and what we
shouldn’t. This research will hopefully put some of the media reports in
perspective, as it rules out one of the potential detrimental effects of coffee
on our arteries.”
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