Your daily cup of joe might be a quick pick-me-up, but it comes with a mixed bag of good and not-so-good effects on your heart health, a new study reports.
Drinking coffee helps people stay more active, but it also significantly robs some of sleep, researchers say.
How does coffee affect your heart?
While java doesn’t seem to cause irregular rhythms in the upper chamber of the heart, it can cause the lower chambers to skip beats, according to findings presented Sunday at the online annual meeting of the American Heart Association.
“People should understand that this extremely commonly consumed beverage really does have substantive effects on our health, and they’re variable,” Dr. Gregory Marcus, lead author and associate chief of cardiology for research at the University of California, San Francisco says. “It’s not that coffee is necessarily all good or all bad. It’s very likely that whether it’s net good or net bad depends on a combination of factors.”
RELATED: 9 Ways To Look & Feel More Awake Every Morning (No Coffee!)
Here are 3 ways coffee can affect your heart:
1. Irregular heart beat
The study found no evidence that coffee consumption created any irregular rhythms within the atria, the upper chambers of the heart. That’s good news since one of the major medical concerns about coffee has been whether it might promote atrial fibrillation, a potentially dangerous condition.
But they did find that coffee consumption could cause the
ventricles — the lower chambers of the heart — to skip beats.
2. More premature ventricular contractions (PVCs)
“On days randomly assigned to coffee, people exhibited about 50% more premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) — more early beats arising from the lower chambers of the heart,” Marcus says. “Those who consumed more than a drink of coffee exhibited essentially a doubling of their PVC counts.”
These PVCs are common and are usually regarded as harmless, he adds.
“We all have them once in a while, and generally they’re considered benign,” Marcus notes. “But we and others have shown that more PVCs are an independent risk factor for heart failure over time. Not everyone with more PVCs has heart failure, but it is a factor.”
Lime Water Recipe: Making a New Type of Coffee
3. Sleep
On the other hand, coffee tended to rob people of sleep.
“On days randomly assigned to coffee, people slept on average about a half-hour less that evening,” Marcus shares. “For every additional cup of coffee, there was about 18 minutes less sleep.”
But folks who were genetically inclined to metabolize coffee more quickly did not exhibit any significant relationship between their
coffee consumption and sleep deprivation.
Should people with atrial fibrillation drink coffee?
“A very common question we get almost every week from patients is: Can I drink coffee? Especially in patients with atrial fibrillation,” a heart rhythm disorder that increases risk of stroke and heart attack, Al-Khatib, an electrophysiologist with the Duke Electrophysiology Clinic in Durham, N.C shares.
“It hasn’t been easy for us as clinicians to advise patients,” Al-Khatib notes.
While Al-Khatib said the study was well done, she sees a need for follow-up research involving more patients over a longer time to see if coffee’s immediate effects eventually lead to increased risk for heart disease, stroke and other health problems.
Participants in this study were relatively young and healthy, with an average age of 38 and an average BMI on the high end of healthy — “not typical of the patient population we see in clinical practice,” who are older and have one or more health problems, she shares.
Coffee Vs. Tea: Is One Better For Your Health?
What to do if you’re concerned about coffee’s effect on your health
“For those that are concerned about atrial fibrillation, these data suggest there’s no reason to worry about coffee consumption. On the other hand, if there are concerns about PVCs, it may make sense to avoid or minimize coffee consumption,” Marcus says.
“If there’s a goal to increase or maintain physical activity, then coffee may be helpful,” he adds, “But for those who have difficulty sleeping then the sleep disruption caused by coffee may make it less worth it.”
If you’re concerned about the effects of coffee on your health, you should talk with your doctor. Depending on your personal health issues, it might make sense for you to either drink coffee or abstain from it.