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Coffee, Afib, Cardiomyopathy and Cancer Survivor
The latest research suggests drinking your morning cup of coffee/joe/java is safe for your heart, and may even be good for it.
When it comes to coffee and heart issues, I am the proverbial canary in a coal mine. I am a cancer suvivor living with chronic A-Fib as well as other heart health issues. I am sentitive to what I eat and what I drink. If you live with Afib, hypertension, and/or cardiomyopathy then this post is for you.
I have lived with chronic atrial fibrillation (Afib) since 2010, I have to keep my BP as low as I can and I was diagnosed with chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy last January. After all these years I still struggle with a little chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction aka chemobrain. So yes, I wonder about the little things and my health…
Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I can’t begin my day without coffee. So am I in trouble? The studies below say no.
In short:
- In moderation, coffee may be good for me and my heart-
- my morning java may spike my BP but only temporarily-
- caffine doesn’t cause Afib-
- my morning java keeps my brain healthy and may even put of Alzheimer’s…
To be fair, I do most everything in moderation these days. I eat and supplement to keep my body, bones, heart, brain and blood healthy. Gone are the days when I could eat and/or drink just about anything and feel fine the next day…
What health challenges are you dealing with? Scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will rely to you ASAP.
Thanks,
David Emerson
- Multiple Myeloma Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Got Heart Failure? Get Brain Training, Exercise, Supplements, Diet
- Nutrition as Cancer Therapy Before, During After Therapy
- I like Fasting and Fasting likes me…
Coffee and Your Heart: Stimulant or Stressor?
The latest research suggests drinking your morning cup is safe for your heart, and may even be good for it.
“Over the years, there’s been a lot of misinformation and some misconceptions about coffee — that all coffee is bad and that people shouldn’t be drinking it,” says Christine Jellis, MD, PhD, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. But recent studies with thousands of participants are turning those misconceptions around, and results have been reassuring for coffee lovers…
A Harvard University study published in Circulation in 2015 found that people who drank three to five cups of coffee daily were less likely to die prematurely from any cause. It also found that they were specifically less likely to die from heart disease and stroke compared to people who drank little or no coffee. And drinking more than five cups of coffee per day didn’t favorably affect risk of death…
These are just the latest in a string of positive research findings. For example, an analysis published in 2013 in Circulation compiled the results of 36 studies on coffee that included more than one million patients. Researchers concluded that people who drank coffee in moderation were significantly less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who didn’t drink coffee…
Caffeine and Your Blood Pressure
Studies investigating the effect of coffee on blood pressure have yielded varied results. In general, caffeinated coffee causes a short-term spike in blood pressure in people who don’t drink it regularly. This is because caffeine stimulates the heart and blood vessels, according to the Mayo Clinic. In a 12-year study of more than 1,000 people ages 18 to 45 who had high blood pressure, those who drank four or more cups of coffee per day were four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. In contrast, long-term studies have shown that most people develop a tolerance to caffeine over time. Reviews of numerous studies show coffee drinkers were no more likely to develop hypertension than abstainers, and those who already had high blood pressure were no more likely to develop cardiovascular disease…
Caffeine and Your Heart Rhythm
In a large review of studies published in 2013 in Heart that included more than 115,000 people, researchers found that drinking coffee didn’t raise the risk of irregular heartbeat, including the most common type, atrial fibrillation.
Here’s Another Reason to Feel Good About Drinking Coffee
“The news about coffee just keeps getting better. In a new analysis of one of the country’s largest and longest-running studies, drinking coffee was linked to a lower risk of heart failure, stroke and coronary heart disease. Every extra cup of coffee consumed per day reduced each of these conditions by 8%, 7% and 5%, respectively, up to at least six cups per day.
The preliminary research was presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Anaheim, California. It has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, but it’s not the first research to suggest that coffee protects the heart and arteries…
Out of all the potential links to heart disease the researchers considered, one stood out after the analysis. Coffee was associated with a reduced risk for heart failure, stroke and coronary heart disease. For coffee drinkers, every 8-ounce cup per day reduced these risks by 7%, 8% and 5%, respectively, compared to people who didn’t drink coffee. Almost all of the coffee drinkers in the study (97%) consumed between one and six cups of coffee a day, says Stevens, so the researchers can’t know for sure if the benefits continue at even higher consumption levels.
The researchers even determined that whether someone drank coffee or not could help predict their eventual risk of heart failure or stroke. When they added coffee-drinking to a risk assessment tool that also included other known risk factors (like age, blood pressure and cholesterol), their prediction accuracy improved by 4%.
The researchers then confirmed their findings with more traditional analyses of two additional large study groups: the Cardiovascular Heart Study and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.
Because these studies simply observed people’s health and coffee consumption over time, the analyses were only able to determine a link between the two—not a cause-and-effect relationship. But based on these and other findings, experts suspect that coffee may be protective against conditions like heart failure and stroke. Previous research has suggested that coffee’s caffeine content, along with its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, may be responsible for its presumed health benefits…”