Heavy Coffee Drinking Doesn't Hurt the Heart

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The researchers behind the new study had to adjust their risk estimates for other habits that often go with coffee consumption. For example, heavy coffee drinkers were more likely to drink alcohol and use aspirin, and less likely to exercise and use vitamin supplements. And there was a strong association between coffee consumption and smoking; more than half the women and 30 percent of the men drinking six or more cups a day also smoked cigarettes.

Some other findings in the study:

• There was no difference in heart risk between women who frequently drank decaffeinated coffee and those who did not.
• There was no significant difference in blood levels of total cholesterol, HDL ("good") cholesterol and LDL ("bad") cholesterol in coffee drinkers, whether they favored caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.
• Type 2 diabetes, the kind that generally develops later in life, had no effect on heart-disease risk -- or the lack of risk -- associated with drinking coffee.

Van Dam had some advice for coffee drinkers. "If you perceive unpleasant symptoms, such as difficulty falling to sleep when consuming caffeinated coffee, that means you drink too much," he said.

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And women who are pregnant or nursing should limit themselves to three or fewer 8-ounce cups a day because "the child is very sensitive to caffeine," he said.

Also, "persons with specific diseases such as heart conditions can consult their physicians about prudent coffee consumption," van Dam said.

More information

For more on caffeine and the heart, visit the American Heart Association (www.americanheart.org ).

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