Why Health is Wealth: How Drinking Coffee in Moderation Benefit Heart

Many Health Benefits of coffee

The research revealed today follows a number of recent studies linking coffee consumption with health benefits. An observational study published in Archives of Internal Medicine in September 2011 suggested that coffee may lower the risk of depression in older females, whilst other research has suggested benefits related to skin cancer and endometrial cancer and diabetes. Two further studies have suggested that coffee may provide health benefits connected with the brain, in particular Alzheimer's disease and memory function.

It’s surprising when something that was once considered questionable for your health turns out to have health benefits, usually with the proviso to use it “in moderation.” That happened with chocolate and alcohol, and now it is coffee’s turn. Study findings from 2004 and 2005 suggest coffee might actually be good for us. However, coffee hasn’t been completely exonerated.

Coffee contains antioxidants that may offer some cardiovascular protection, and research is showing that it reduces the likelihood of developing diabetes, which is itself a major heart disease risk factor. But it also increases homocysteine levels and may have negative effects on the aorta. In general, when a risk factor has been carefully studied and the results flip back and forth like this, it often means that if there is any harm or benefit, it’s pretty minor.

Here’s some of the mostly good news about coffee:

Blood pressure-

True, a cup of coffee can temporarily kick up your blood pressure. But results from long-term studies are showing that coffee may not increase the risk for high blood pressure over time, as previously thought. It’s possible that people develop a tolerance to coffee’s hypertensive effects after a while.

Cancer-

Coffee might have anti-cancer properties. Last year, researchers found that coffee drinkers were 50% less likely to get liver cancer than non-drinkers. A few studies have found ties to lower rates of colon, breast, and rectal cancers. Several studies have shown that caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee have different health effects.

Cholesterol-

Two substances in coffee — kahweol and cafestol — raise cholesterol levels. Paper filters capture these substances, but that doesn’t help the many people who now drink non-filtered coffee drinks, such as lattes. Researchers have also found a link between cholesterol increases and decaffeinated coffee, possibly because of the type of bean used to make certain decaffeinated coffees.

Diabetes-

Heavy coffee drinkers may be half as likely to get diabetes as light drinkers or nondrinkers. Coffee may contain ingredients that lower blood sugar. A coffee habit may also increase your resting metabolism rate, which could help keep diabetes at bay.

Gallstones-

Coffee drinkers are less likely to suffer symptomatic gallstone disease, possibly because coffee alters the cholesterol content of the bile produced by the liver.

Parkinson’s disease-

Coffee seems to protect men but not women against Parkinson’s disease. One possible explanation for the sex difference may be that estrogen and caffeine need the same enzymes to be metabolized, and estrogen captures those enzymes.

Latest research- Coffee in Moderation May Benefit Heart Slightly

New research from the US suggests drinking coffee in moderation, that is four European cups (equivalent to two 8-ounce American servings) per day, may protect slightly against heart failure, contradicting the guidelines of the American Heart Association that currently warn against regular coffee consumption. You can read a paper on the study, by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard School of

Public Health in Boston, in the 26 June issue of the journal Circulation Heart Failure. Some previous studies have suggested there is a protective heart benefit from regular coffee consumption, while others have found no such link. So in this new study, the researchers decided to look at the data differently, and shift the debate from a question of "yes" or "no" to "how much". Lead author Elizabeth Mostofsky, a post-doctoral fellow in the cardiovascular epidemiological unit at BIDMC, told the press,Our results did show a possible benefit, but like with so many other things we consume, it really depends on how much coffee you drink.

Mostofsky and colleagues analyzed data from five studies, four carried out in Sweden the other in Finland, and found a statistically significant J-shaped curve linking coffee consumption and heart failure risk (the lowest risk being at the bottom of the curve). Altogether, the self-reported coffee consumption data came from 140,220 participants who experienced a total of 6,522 heart failure events. The researchers found that compared with drinking no coffee at all (the start of the J-curve, on the left), participants who drank four European cups (or two 8-ounce American servings) per day had an 11% lower risk of heart failure (the bottom of the J-shaped curve).

This dose-response analysis showed that at higher levels of consumption this benefit gradually disappeared, until at five European cups, there was no benefit and at more than five cups a day, there may be potential for harm, compared to drinking no coffee at all (coinciding with where the right-hand side of the J-curve rises higher than the left). The results showed no evidence that the link between coffee and heart failure risk varied by sex or by history of heart attack or diabetes. Although Mostofsky and colleagues did not investigate why moderate coffee consumption appears to offer modest protection against heart failure, they speculate it could have something to do with how coffee consumption affects diabetes and high blood pressure, two of the biggest risk factors for heart failure.Senior author Murray Mittleman, a physician at BIDMC's Cardiovascular Institute, said, There is a good deal of research showing that drinking coffee lowers the risk for type 2 diabetes.It stands to reason that if you lower the risk of diabetes, you also lower the risk of heart failure," he added.Another reason could be studies have consistently shown that light coffee and caffeine consumption raises blood pressure.

But at that moderate range of consumption, people tend to develop a tolerance where drinking coffee does not pose a risk and may even be protective against elevated blood pressure," said Mittleman, who is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of BIDMC's cardiovascular epidemiological research program. The data in this study did not allow the researchers to look at differences in coffee strength, nor to compare caffeinated against decaffeinated coffee. Mostofsky said it was clear this link needs further investigation,” But in the short run, this data may warrant a change to the guidelines to reflect that coffee consumption, in moderation, may provide some protection from heart failure," she urged.