CAD
Coffee not linked with coronary heart disease
By IANS
Apr 25, 2006, 20:52

Good news for caffeine addicts - coffee, in any quantity, does not raise the risk of coronary heart disease and could actually reduce the chances, says a study.

Researchers led by Esther Lopez-Garcia of the School of Medicine at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain studied 44,005 men and 84,488 women and found that people who drink six or more cups of coffee a day could have less risk than those who consumed a cup or less a day.

The relative risk (RR) of coronary heart disease among men was 1.0 for men who drank less than a cup of coffee a month and 1.04 for men who drank one cup a month to four cups a week.

For those who drank about a cup a day the RR was 1.02 and for those who said they drank two to three cups a day the risk was 0.97, it said.

For those who drank four to five cups daily the risk was 1.07 while for those who drank six or more cups every day the RR dropped to 0.72, it said.

Among women, RR for those who drank less than a cup a month was 1.0 and for those who consumed one cup a month to four a week it was 0.97. For women drinking a cup a day the RR was 1.02 and for those drinking two to three cups a day it was 0.84.

Women who drank four to five cups a day had an RR of 0.84 and for those who said that had at least six cups a day it was 0.87.

Although the study found no evidence to suggest an increased risk of coronary heart disease based on total caffeine consumption, researchers cautioned that in "certain genotypes" caffeine may increase the risk of coronary heart disease but said that remains to be proven.

The researchers said their findings apply to standard percolator or drip coffee, not to high intakes of unfiltered coffee such as the increasingly popular "French press" coffee, which produces a dark, strong cup.

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