Photo: Getty Images
Here's today's feel-good story:
Two to three cups of coffee a day, according to new studies, can help lower the risk of heart disease and dangerous heart rhythms and help you live longer.
This is the case for people with and without cardiovascular disease. Researchers looked at the role that coffee plays in heart disease and found that not only is it not tied to new or worsening issues, but it can be heart protective.
“Because coffee can quicken heart rate, some people worry that drinking it could trigger or worsen certain heart issues. This is where general medical advice to stop drinking coffee may come from. But our data suggest that daily coffee intake shouldn’t be discouraged, but rather included as a part of a healthy diet for people with and without heart disease,” said professor and head of arrhythmia research at the Alfred Hospital and Baker Heart Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and the study’s senior author, Peter M. Kistler, MD.
“We found coffee drinking had either a neutral effect—meaning that it did no harm—or was associated with benefits to heart health.”