Cardiovascular health

Patient studies – some limitations

Studies in patients with underlying disease conditions, from diabetes to myocardial infarction and hypertension, have shown a wide variety of results for the effects of coffee consumption on cardiovascular disease risk.

All the studies show that there are a great number of confounding factors at work which can potentially affect study results, including type of coffee given, genetics of participants and possible biochemical effects of other coffee components. Additionally, inherent difficulties in recruiting diseased participants can mean studies tend to have small numbers of subjects and ongoing patient treatment can interfere with trials. The primary value of in-patient studies will ultimately be in therapy development.