man drinking coffee
A man drinks coffee at a coffee shop in Mumbai May 9, 2006. Reuters/Adeel Halim/Files

While it was once perceived that drinking coffee could make a person more likely to suffer from heart attacks, reports are growing about the beverage's beneficial effects on cardiovascular health. Now researchers reveal there's more evidence showing that caffeine fix is good for the heart. A new study from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden suggests that drinking coffee is not associated with an increased risk of a condition called atrial fibrillation, which is a type of irregular heartbeat, in both men and women.

Their findings, published in the journal BioMed Central, is considered to be the largest prospective research to date on the association between coffee consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation. According to the study's lead author, Susanna Larsson, an associate professor of epidemiology at the institute, the study is important because it shows that consuming coffee is safe, at least in moderation, and without the risk of developing such condition.

For the study, Larsson and her colleagues used data from two long-running studies, the Cohort of Swedish Men and the Swedish Mammography Cohort, which involve about 42,000 men and nearly 35,000 women. In 1997, the participants were asked to accomplish questionnaires about their health and diet, including the number of cups of coffee they drank daily or weekly. The researchers then analysed the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register during the 12-year follow-up period to identify which patients developed atrial fibrillation.

After studying all data, the team established that there is no association between drinking coffee and an increased risk of atrial fibrillation. 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. "Whether men may be more sensitive to a high coffee or caffeine intake warrants further study," the researchers said.

To confirm their findings, the team also conducted a meta-analysis wherein they went through six other studies on atrial fibrillation and coffee intake. They note, however, that although coffee does not appear to increase the risk of atrial fibrillation, it may increase risk of other types of irregular heartbeats.

The study of Larsson and her team follows an earlier research published in March 2015, which claimed that coffee may lower the risk of clogged arteries that can lead to heart attacks. In the research conducted by Dr Eliseo Guallar, an epidemiologist, and his colleagues at the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul in South Korea, they found that those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day had a lower risk of having calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, which is an indicator of heart disease.

Coronary arteries are vessels that bring oxygenated blood to the heart muscle itself. The researchers, who published their study in the journal Heart, say that while they don't have a clear idea how coffee may lower the risk of arterial disease, it may be due to the beverage's many antioxidants.

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