Relax. Drinking several more cups of coffee on a night shift may not be harmful to your heart, latest research shows.
Results of a study presented at the recent British Cardiovascular Society conference found that moderate coffee consumption did not adversely affect arterial stiffness.
The Queen Mary University of London researchers studied the effects of more than 8,400 people who drank coffee in three groups: less than one cup a day; one to three cups a day; and more than three cups a day. People who drank more than 25 cups of coffee a day and those with previous cardiovascular disease were excluded.
Arterial stiffness was measured using cardiac magnetic resonance and pulse waveform via finger probes. Results showed drinking 1–25 cups of coffee a day was not associated with significant changes in arterial stiffness. In fact, the researchers found that “coffee consumption was associated with a lower prevalence of coronary artery calcium, a marker of sub-clinical coronary atherosclerosis”.
The study was published in BMJ Heart.
