Drinking at least one cup of coffee a day could help reduce the risk of heart failure, researchers said Tuesday.
The report, which was published Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure, found that there is a benefit to java consumption, examining data from three major studies.
Compared to people who don’t drink coffee, java lovers have been shown to have a low risk of heart failure of between 5 and 12% for every cup they drink daily, according to research by Framingham Heart and Cardiovascular Health. .
That was the case for up to three cups of coffee, the study said.
A second study of the risk of atherosclerosis in communities found that the risk of heart failure remained the same if you did not drink coffee or a cup a day.
But the same study found that two cups of coffee were associated with a 30% reduced risk of heart failure.
Meanwhile, decaffeinated coffee did not have the same benefits as regular java – and a study suggested it may be linked to a higher risk of heart problems.
Dr. David Kao, an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said it suggests that caffeine may be the key factor in heart health.
“The association between caffeine and the reduction in the risk of heart failure was surprising,” Kao said in a statement.
“Coffee and caffeine are often considered by the general population to be harmful to the heart because people associate them with palpitations, high blood pressure, etc.”