It is no surprise that more people drink coffee than those who don’t. According to the National Coffee association over 50% of Americans drink coffee and average 3 cups a day.
Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women and many heart patients have wondered whether or not their “coffee” habit was dangerous because of their condition.
Well a new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, shows that women with heart disease or a previous heart attack, who continued to drink coffee, lived just as long as women with heart disease who didn’t consume coffee.
The new study followed nearly 12,000 U.S. nurses with a history of heart disease or stroke. It found that those who regularly drank caffeinated coffee were no more likely to die than non-drinkers during the study period, which for some, lasted more than 20 years. (the findings held true for women who even drank 4 or more cups of coffee a day.
The take away from this study, is that if you love coffee and already have diagnosed heart disease or have already had a heart attack, continuing to drink coffee, at least in moderate amounts, does not seem to add any addition risk to women.
Unfortunately, the researchers had no data to report on men.
The “health” pros and cons of coffee seem to indicate that moderate coffee consumption does not seem to pose much of a health risk to most people. If you would like to read an article discussing the Pros and Cons of coffee consumption please go to my recent blog post: “Caffeine…Is It Good or Bad For You-The Low Down on Caffeine”
To the best of health,
Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S
