An expert has urged people to drink a certain hot beverage regularly to lower their risk of heart disease. According to Professor Tim Spector, the founder of Zoe Health, consuming coffee could protect your heart.
In a clip of the Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast shared to his Instagram page, Tim explained that the health benefits of coffee could outweigh the potential side effects for many people.
He said: “Studies are showing that coffee drinkers have less heart disease than non-coffee drinkers. There’s certainly no excess in cancers or mortality to suggest there were any bad effects.”
However, he acknowledged that some people have an adverse reaction to caffeine.
“Now, I think there’s always a caveat to this,” he said. “And there are some people who are very sensitive to caffeine who might get a pulse that goes faster and they get some real effects of the caffeine but it generally doesn’t kill them or cause them any permanent damage and they just know to avoid the drink.
“And that’s why these long-term studies have shown that not only is it safe, but it actually has protective properties on the heart.”
In a caption under the video, Tim said that many of the benefits of coffee come from its polyphenol and fibre content, which is good for our gut health.
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“While coffee is packed full of polyphenols and fibre that have been shown to benefit your gut health, for those of us who are sensitive to caffeine the costs may outweigh these benefits,” he added.
His advice is backed by a study from 2022, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
In this study, of almost 450,000 people, researchers found that people who drank two to three cups of coffee each day had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and early death than those who avoided the beverage.
Participants had an average age 58 and did not have an irregular heartbeat (such as atrial fibrillation) or cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease, heart failure, or stroke) to begin with.
As part of the study they reported how many cups of coffee they drank each day and their preferred coffee choice.
They were then put into groups based on their daily consumption, from zero to more than five cups.
Following a period of 12 years, the incidences of irregular heartbeat, cardiovascular disease, heart-related deaths, and deaths from any cause were lower among coffee drinkers compared with those who didn’t drink coffee.
It was concluded that people who drank two to three cups daily had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease and death. Among people with an irregular heartbeat, the lowest risk was among those who drank four to five cups daily.
Interestingly all types of coffee were linked to less cardiovascular disease although drinking decaffeinated coffee was not associated with reduced risks of irregular heartbeat.
However, the Mayo Clinic warns that certain people should be cautious when it comes to consuming caffeine including pregnant women, women who are breastfeeding, people with high blood pressure and people with high cholesterol.
