Up to three cups of coffee a day are associated with a lower risk of stroke and fatal heart disease, according to a study presented at the 2021 ESC Congress.1.2
“To our knowledge, this is the largest study systematically evaluating the cardiovascular effects of regular coffee consumption in a population without diagnosed heart disease,” said study author Dr Judit Simon of the Heart and Vascular Center at Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. .
“Our results suggest that regular coffee consumption is safe, as even high daily consumption was not associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality after 10 to 15 years of follow-up,” he said. she continued. “In addition, 0.5 to 3 cups of coffee per day were independently associated with lower risks of stroke, death from cardiovascular disease, and death from any cause.”
Although coffee is among the most consumed drinks in the world, little is known about the long-term impact of regular consumption on cardiovascular health.
This study examined the association between habitual coffee consumption and incidents of heart attack, stroke, and death. The study included 468,629 UK Biobank participants with no signs of heart disease at the time of enrollment. The average age was 56.2 years and 55.8% were female.
Participants were divided into three groups based on their usual coffee consumption: none (did not consume coffee regularly, 22.1%), light to moderate (0.5 to 3 cups / day, 58.4%) and high (more than 3 cups / day, 19.5%).
Researchers estimated the association of daily coffee consumption with incident outcomes at a median 11-year follow-up using multivariate models. Analyzes were adjusted for factors that may influence the relationship, including age, sex, weight, height, smoking, physical activity, high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, blood socioeconomic status and habitual consumption of alcohol, meat, tea, fruits and vegetables.
Compared to non-coffee drinkers, light to moderate drinking was associated with a 12% lower risk of death from all causes (hazard ratio [HR]= 0.88, p <0.001), 17% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease (HR = 0.83, p = 0.006) and 21% risk of stroke (HR = 0.79; p = 0.037).
To examine the potential underlying mechanisms, the researchers analyzed the association between daily coffee consumption and heart structure and function over a median follow-up of 11 years. To do this, they used data from 30,650 participants who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is considered the gold standard for evaluating heart structure and function.
Dr Simon said: “Imaging analysis indicated that compared to participants who did not drink coffee regularly, daily consumers had larger and better functioning hearts. This was consistent with reversing the damaging effects of aging on the heart. “
She concluded: “Our results suggest that consuming up to 3 cups of coffee per day is associated with favorable cardiovascular outcomes. Although more studies are needed to explain the underlying mechanisms, the observed benefits could be explained in part by positive alterations in the structure and function of the heart.
References and Notes
- Abstract Title: Association of Daily Coffee Consumption with Heart Health – UK Biobank Findings.
- Press conference: “Heart health made easy” Thursday August 26, 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm CEST.
Funding: PBM and SEP acknowledge the support of the Barts Biomedical Research Center of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). SEP acknowledges the support of the EPSRC SmartHeart program grant (www.nihr.ac.uk; EP / P001009 / 1) as well as the CAP-AI program, London’s first AI activation program focused on stimulating growth in the capital’s AI sector. CAP-AI is led by Capital Enterprise in partnership with Barts Health NHS Trust and Digital Catapult and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Barts Charity. SEP and SN thank the British Heart Foundation for funding the manual analysis to create a cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging benchmark standard for the UK Biobank imaging resource in 5000 CMR scans (www.bhf.org.uk; PG / 14/89/31194). SN and SKP supported by the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Center and SN by the Oxford British Heart Foundation Center of Research Excellence. NA recognizes the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Integrated Academic Training Program that supports their positions as academic clinical professors. NCH acknowledges the support of the UK Medical Research Council (MRC # 405050259 and # U105960371), NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Center, University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton. ZRE was supported by a British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowship (FS / 17/81/33318). Project No. NVKP_16-1–2016-0017 (“National Heart Program”) was implemented with the support of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, funded under the financing NVKP_16. The research was funded by the Thematic Excellence Program (2020-4.1.1.-TKP2020) of the Hungarian Ministry of Innovation and Technology, under the Thematic Programs of Therapeutic Development and Bioimaging of the University Semmelweis.
