Attention all coffee drinkers! Turns out, your daily caffeine fix might be doing more than just keeping you energized—it could be protecting your heart.
Recent studies suggest that drinking more cups of coffee a day may actually help reduce the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. These diseases are collectively known as cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CM), which refers to the coexistence of one or more of these conditions. In recent years, there has been a higher prevalence of individuals with CM, leading to greater public concern as the world ages.
“Consuming three cups of coffee, or 200-300 mg caffeine, per day might help to reduce the risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity in individuals without any cardiometabolic disease,” said the study’s lead author Chaofu Ke, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health at Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, in Suzhou, China.
The newest study found that compared to non-drinkers or caffeine consumers of less than 100 milligrams per day, consumers who drank about three cups had between a 40.7% and 48.1% reduced risk of onset CM. Ke and his colleagues based their findings on data from the UK Biobank, which conducted a detailed longitudinal study with over 500,000 participants from ages 37 to 73. The pool of participants included a total of 172,315 individuals who did not have any cardiometabolic diseases for analysis of caffeine consumption and a corresponding 188,091 individuals for the analysis of coffee and tea consumption. The participants’ outcomes were identified from self-reported medical conditions, primary care data, and records from the UK Biobank.
In short, coffee and caffeine intake were inversely related to the risk of new-onset CM at all levels in participants without cardiometabolic diseases. More interestingly, those who reported moderate coffee intake had the lowest risk of entering the developmental stages of CM. “Caffeine intake at different doses could have different health effects,” Ke wrote in an email. Coffee drinkers had the lowest risk of CM, with nearly a 5% reduction, and people who got 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine from tea or a mix of other beverages saw similar but smaller benefits. It was noted that the benefits for tea drinkers after three cups a day tapered off. People who drank four or more cups of coffee a day demonstrated no adverse effects to their cardiometabolic health from the stimulant. Among people who did develop cardiometabolic disease later on, such as type 2 diabetes, were still less likely to develop another disease, like coronary artery disease, if they drank moderate amounts of coffee.
These findings were published on September 17 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. However, while researchers and doctors are taking this new information with stride, many caution that caffeine is not beneficial for all people. Dr. Luke Laffin, co-director of the Center for Blood Pressure Disorders at Cleveland Clinic, notes that these findings can only be taken in context. “Too many cups of coffee can raise blood pressure in someone who already has hypertension,” Laffin said. Additionally, there are many studies that show a correlation between high levels of caffeine and dementia and reduced kidney health.
Dr. Stephen Kopecky, a preventative cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, notes that a person’s underlying health issues are important to consider, and the way a person consumes caffeine can make a big difference in how it affects their health. “The message I don’t want to get out there is that caffeine is good, so let’s take more of it. We have never found that taking what is good in the diet and putting it in a pill is equally beneficial,” Kopecky said.
In the end, there is always more to discuss and study when it comes to the human body and what is beneficial to it. As many scientists, doctors, and nutrition experts say, everything is good in moderation.
