Drinking coffee `protects the heart`
London: Sipping a strong cup of hot coffee
not only helps clear the mind and perk up energy, but it could
be a lifesaver too, for a new study has revealed that caffeine
protects the heart.
An international team has found that drinking coffee
regularly could protect drinkers from irregular heart beats or
rhythms -- and the more cups they drink a day, the less likely
they are to suffer from the condition.
For the study, researchers, led by Dr Arthur Klatsky
of US pharmaceutical giant Kaiser Permanente, followed 130,054
men and women, aged 18 to 90, and found that those who drank
four or more cups of coffee each day had an 18 per cent lower
risk of hospitalization for heart rhythm disturbances.
Those who reported drinking one to three cups each day
had a seven per cent reduction in risk compared to abstainers.
"While the link didn`t automatically suggest that
coffee alone was responsible for the link, it did appear to
show coffee did no harm," Dr Klatsky said.
Dr Klatsky added: "Coffee drinking is related
to lower risk of hospitalisation for rhythm problems, but the
association does not prove cause and effect, or that coffee
has a protective effect.
"However, these data might be reassuring to people
who drink moderate amounts of coffee that their habit is not
likely to cause a major rhythm disturbance."
The latest results, presented at the American Heart
Association`s Annual Conference in San Francisco, followed a
raft of other researches which showed coffee has a protective
effect on the heart.
A report from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain
showed that drinking three cups of coffee a day could reduce
the risk of women dying from heart disease by a quarter.
Another showed that men who drank five or more cups of
coffee were 44 per cent less likely to die from the disease.
Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day was also shown to
reduce the risk of a stroke by almost 20 per cent.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 03, 2010, 00:00
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