Coffee may not be bad for your heart after all - it actually could enrich it.
A UCSF study published this week examined nearly 400,000 self-reported coffee drinkers and found no evidence that the beverage causes cardiac arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat. In fact, the study found every cup consumers drink lowers their risk of developing the condition by 3%.
The study observed individuals in the UK from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2018.
"This (study used) an extremely valuable cohort called the UK bio bank," Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiology professor at UCSF and senior author of the study, told KCBS Radio on Thursday. "We examined what people described and followed them for years after to find out who didn’t and develop arrhythmia."
The study only examined coffee in a general sense – it didn’t specify the type of coffee people drank.
In addition, a second study conducted by the same researchers failed to find that people whose genetics allow them to metabolize caffeine more quickly or slowly have any heightened risk for arrhythmias.
While admitting that this finding is probably “germane” to all caffeine, Marcus stopped short of concluding anything definitive from this study about other caffeinated substances like tea or chocolate.
"These foods have multiple properties to them," he explained. "In terms of thinking about extrapolating this to individuals’ behavior and the general population, I think it’s safer to extrapolate from coffee per se, where we did have quite a bit of rich information in this study."
That information can allow coffee lovers to breathe a sigh of relief.
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