Caffeine addicts can pour themselves up to 25 cups of coffee a day without worrying as it's not as bad for the health as previously believed.
New Study Debunks Previous Studies
New research from the Queen Mary University of London was presented at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester, revealing that drinking coffee isn't linked to stiffer arteries.
Previous studies claim that coffee makes the arteries stiffer, which in turn increases an individual's risk of heart attacks or strokes. Now, researchers are suggesting that these past studies tend to be inconsistent and limited with low participant numbers.
The new study, led by Prof. Steffen Petersen, analyzed data from over 8,000 people and discovered that even a lot of coffee isn't associated with adverse effects on the arteries.
Study Details
For the study, coffee consumption was classified into three groups: less than one cup a day, one to three cups a day, and more than three cups a day.
The people who drank more than 25 cups of coffee a day were excluded from the study. However, when the researchers checked, those who drank up to 25 cups of coffee every day did not show additional stiffening of arteries compared with the participants who only drank one cup of coffee a day.
Moderate and heavy coffee drinkers are found to be most likely male, smokers, and regular alcohol drinkers.
"The main message for people to take away from this is that coffee can be enjoyed as part of a healthy lifestyle, and coffee lovers can be reassured by this result in terms of blood vessel stiffness outcomes," Dr. Kenneth Fung, who led the data analysis for the research at Queen Mary University of London, told CNN.
He continued that the researchers aren't telling people to drink two dozen cups of coffee a day, but that people drinking within recommended guidelines can expect no increase in stiffness in the arteries.
Professor Metin Avkiran, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, pointed out that there are conflicting studies that tackle the effects of coffee, which make it difficult for consumers to filter out what's accurate and what's not.
"This research will hopefully put some of the media reports in perspective, as it rules out one of the potential detrimental effects of coffee on our arteries," Avkiran said in a statement.
The average coffee intake of the highest consumption group is five cups of coffee a day. According to Fung, their research team is interested in studying these people more closely in the future, so that they can help determine and advise people about the safe limits of caffeine.
