The study looked at the link between coffee consumption and the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF), which is the fancy name for the two upper chambers of the heart contracting either too quickly or in an irregular manner. Fluttering or irregular heartbeats (also known as an arrhythmia) can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other complications. High coffee consumption is said to increase the risk of AF.
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The latest finding was by the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Seoul in South Korea, which examined the link between coffee consumption and the presence of coronary artery calcium (CAC) which is an early indicator of coronary atherosclerosis, when arteries get clogged, leading to heart attack or a stroke. The researchers followed the participants’ health for the next 12 years. The American Heart Association estimated 2.7 million Americans have atrial fibrillation. All studies were done in Sweden or the United States.
To confirm their findings, the team also conducted a meta-analysis wherein they went through six other studies on atrial fibrillation and coffee intake.
The first part of the study was made up of 76,475 men and women, who, in 1997, reported how many cups of coffee they had each day. It was conducted on both men and women and the results are valid for both the sexes.
In the study, researchers found that drinking coffee was not associated with an increased risk of a condition called atrial fibrillation, which is a type of irregular heartbeat, in either men or women. The grand total number of atrial fibrillation cases swelled to 10,406 people (out of 248,910).
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Published on Wednesday in the journal Biomed Central, the study found that drinking a cup of Java was not related to increasing one’s risk for developing atrial fibrillation (AF). While they found a slight increase in risk when they limited the analysis to men, the researchers claim the uptick was not statistically significant, which means it could have been due to chance. That was true even among those with the highest levels of coffee consumption. Ultimately, more study is needed to answer these questions, the researchers noted. “This is important because it shows that people who like coffee can safely continue to consume it, at least in moderation, without the risk of developing this condition”, says lead author Susanna Larsson, from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
