Cardiovascular health
Coffee consumption and cardiovascular health
Regular coffee consumption does not increase risk of cardiovascular disease
A wide variety of studies, both large and small, have been carried out on both healthy participants and patients who already suffer from cardiovascular disease or one of its risk factors. Overall there is no evidence to suggest a negative effect of moderate coffee consumption on cardiovascular health.
Coffee consumption and coronary heart disease risk
A large meta-analysis of 21 studies published in 20094 on coffee consumption and coronary heart disease risk found a large variation between the individual results of the studies reviewed. Overall, it did not find a statistically significant association between coffee drinking and long-term risk of coronary heart disease. However, habitual moderate coffee consumption was shown to be associated with a lower risk of heart disease in women.
Three further recent studies5,6,7 also saw no association between coffee consumption and risk of coronary heart disease. In fact, a Dutch study5 found the lowest risk in groups habitually consuming 2-3 cups of coffee a day.
In conclusion, the large majority of individual studies find no association between coffee consumption and coronary heart disease. However, there is considerable variation between the studies.
Coffee consumption does not increase risk of stroke
The largest study to look at coffee consumption and stroke, the US Nurses Health Study8, found a statistically significant inverse association between consumption of coffee and stroke incidence. This association was the strongest in the subgroup of former and non-smokers. However, these results have not been corroborated by other studies which have failed to find any associations between coffee intake and stroke incidence5,6,9.
