Three to five cups of coffee a day could improve heart health, study finds

Whether positive or negative, there are ample pages and reports in existence relating to the effect that coffee has upon the heart. One study says that risk factors such as blood pressure can exasperated by your coffee habit, another claims that a cup or two a day gives your heart a boost. Nobody, it seems, knows.

However a new report has divulged some rather encouraging information that seemingly adds evidence to the notion that coffee is a miracle elixir sent from some higher power to right a number of wrongs.

A team of researchers, led by the Kangbuck Samsung Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, looked at the link between coffee and coronary artery calcium deposits (otherwise known as CAC), an early indicator for atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease.

As the arteries around the heart become clogged up, harden or narrow, blood clots are more prevalent which can trigger potentially deadly attacks.

Over 25,000 Korean men and women were studied. At the beginning of the investigation their average age was 41 and none of them had any noticeable or conclusive signs of heart disease.

Then, when pouring over the results of the tests, scans and check-ups, the participants were split into groups relating to their coffee consumption.

On average, the research team found that detectable CAC rates came in at 13.4% across the group and the mean coffee intake was just shy of 2 cups per day.

Looking further at their results it was noted that calcium rations were 0.77 for those had had less than one coffee per day, 0.66 for the participants who had been one and three, 0.59 for those who drank three to five cups, and 0.81 for people who downed more than five cups.

Basically, if you drink between three and five cups of coffee a day you are less likely to have signs of coronary artery calcium.

“Our study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that coffee consumption might be inversely associated with cardiovascular disease risk,” the conclusion said.

You can read the entire report via the online journal Heart.