Six reasons why coffee is so good for your heart

For years, cardiologists have advised people with heart conditions to cut out their morning coffee fix for fear of galloping heartbeats and raised blood pressure, while health gurus would counsel against falling for the stimulant’s addictive, but jitter-inducing, pull.

Now, however, a growing body of evidence suggests that those arabica beans could actually have a whole host of heart benefits, from the discovery that they can reduce an irregular heartbeat, to more established connections to weight loss and reduced blood pressure. 

Here’s why everyone can, and should, keep up their coffee habit.

1. Drinking coffee may protect a jittery heart

The latest – and possibly most unexpected – discovery is that drinking coffee may protect against atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart rhythm disorder that causes irregular heartbeats, which affects one in three of us, and if left untreated can lead to heart failure and dementia.

Consultant cardiologist Christopher Wong, one of the lead researchers on the randomised trial, and professor of cardiology at the University of Adelaide, Australia, says: “For years, cardiologists have routinely recommended coffee reduction and abstention to those with AF because caffeine is a stimulant, so we had assumed it could cause racing, irregular beats.”

Wong led a “coin-flip” trial of 200 patients awaiting treatment for AF that randomly allocated half of participants to drink at least one coffee a day, while the other half were asked to avoid it completely.

“Our results flew in the opposite direction, revealing that patients with persistent irregular heartbeats who drank coffee daily had a significantly lower risk – 17 per cent lower – of their AF recurring than those who abstained, and went longer before their first episode occurred.

So how does he explain these newfound benefits? It could be down to “a drop in blood pressure due to coffee’s diuretic properties, to making you more active”, Wong says. He adds that AF patients can now be advised that at least one coffee a day is safe to drink.

2. Coffee could help to reduce inflammation

Inflammation is our body’s response to injury or infection, but chronic inflammation – when our immune system doesn’t switch off again even after a problem clears up – is linked to long-term health issues, including heart disease, and can drive atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

Step forward the humble cup of coffee. “Coffee is complex and contains hundreds, if not thousands, of bioactive compounds [plant chemicals], a number of which are antioxidants, linked to reduced inflammation and, therefore, better heart health,” says Wong.

However, Tracy Parker, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, also adds: “It’s worth noting that you can get similar beneficial compounds to the ones found in coffee simply by increasing your intake of fruit and vegetables – and that comes without any of the possible side effects of caffeine, which can include feeling jittery or too hyper.”

3. Coffee boosts your workouts and peps up your steps

Many of us rely on our morning coffee to perk us up and feel ready to face the day, but it has been proven to give you more get up and go.

“We know that caffeine, being a stimulant, does cause people to be more active, with research showing coffee drinkers achieve about 1,000 steps more per day, on average, than those who don’t drink caffeine,” says Wong.

“Many athletes will consume caffeine before sporting events, but even in the general population, a cup of coffee per day is likely to see you notch up more activity.

“Greater physical activity is obviously good for the body and the heart, which may partly explain why coffee drinkers in our study experience fewer irregular heartbeats.”

4. Coffee benefits the gut, feeding our ‘good bacteria’

Our understanding of the importance of the gut-heart axis – the two-way communication system between our gut microbiome and cardiovascular system – has grown exponentially in recent years, and now experts believe that coffee may have a role in ensuring it functions effectively.

In fact, one recent study published in Nature Microbiology positively linked 115 species of gut bacteria to drinking coffee, thanks to its prebiotic properties, with coffee drinkers found to have six to eight times more of a specific gut-friendly microbe than those who don’t touch the stuff.

Parker explains: “Coffee acts as a prebiotic, which means it feeds good bacteria in our gut to ensure we have a really healthy microbiome, and we now know that good gut health has implied good heart-health benefits.”

One of the reasons for this is that gut microbes manufacture short-chain fatty acids, which are beneficial for the heart because they reduce inflammation and improve blood pressure. The BHF is currently funding research to explore whether some forms of gut bacteria could protect us from developing hardening of the arteries, which can lead to heart attacks.

5. Coffee may lower blood pressure – and prevent high blood pressure

There’s a long-held belief that coffee causes high blood pressure, but Parker offers some reassurance: “Sometimes the caffeine in coffee can cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, but that’s very temporary – about half an hour,” she says.

In fact, Wong is keen to emphasise that there are potential long-term benefits for blood pressure, for surprising reasons.

Regular coffee drinkers are likely to have noticed that their daily dose makes them need to urinate more often – but they might not realise that those extra trips to the bathroom could come with heart benefits.

“Coffee and caffeine are diuretics,” explains Wong. “Many medicines used to lower blood pressure are also diuretics, meaning they are drugs designed to cause us to pass more water.” This is because removing excess fluid from your body allows the blood vessels to relax and widen, lowering your blood pressure. Coffee has a similar impact, so if consumed regularly, may keep blood pressure lower in the long term.

“There have also been other trials that suggest that drinking coffee regularly may even reduce your risk of developing high blood pressure in the future,” adds Wong. “And lower blood pressure could be another of the reasons why the coffee drinkers in our study had fewer episodes of AF.”

6. Coffee helps with weight loss

From the keto diet to a HIIT workout or old-school slimming clubs, everyone has their go-to method for shedding a few pounds if their weight creeps up. But have you thought about what your morning Americanomight contribute to your diet’s success? Research has found that drinking caffeine may promote weight, BMI and body fat reduction.

“The research is very interesting – specifically, there is a slightly higher degree of weight loss seen, on average, when comparing people who drink caffeine versus those who do not,” says Wong.

“Our understanding is that it is due to the fact that coffee is a stimulant. We all have a basal level of metabolism activity, and coffee appears to increase that metabolism.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]