Does coffee help or harm your heart?

ISLAMABAD: Many people can’t imagine starting their day without a cup or two of coffee. Despite its popularity, however, coffee has been a bit controversial when it comes to heart health.

“The thinking about coffee’s effects on the heart has swung in both directions,” says Dr. J. Michael Gaziano, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. In the 1960s, coffee was considered a risk factor for coronary artery disease, although later research suggested that only heavy coffee consumption (more than five or six cups a day) might harm the heart. But people who drink excessive amounts of coffee often differ in many other ways from those who enjoy modest amounts, dr. g+aziano notes.

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Because coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant, people have long wondered whether drinking coffee might “jazz up” the heart, triggering palpitations (the odd sensation of a skipped, missed, or strong heartbeat) or atrial fibrillation (a heart rhythm problem marked by a rapid, irregular heartbeat).

However, people who drink moderate amounts of coffee (one to three cups per day) actually appear to have a lower risk of atrial fibrillation, according to a 2019 study co-authored by Dr. Gaziano. Those who drank either more or less coffee were no more or less likely to develop atrial fibrillation, the study found.

Like a lot of dietary research, that study was observational: people reported what they consumed and researchers tracked their health over many years. But a new study took a different approach — it directly measured the short-term effects of drinking coffee (see “The coffee connection: More steps, less sleep, possible palpitations?”).

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