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Atrial Fibrillation is an irregular heartbeat that can lead to things like blood clots, heart failure, stroke, and other heart-related complications. Over five million Americans are estimated to currently suffer from atrial fibrillation, or AFib, and that number is expected to jump up to 12 million by 2030.
It is generally believed that consuming coffee and other caffeinated drinks should be avoided by individuals with AFib; anyone who has ever been over-caffeinated can intuit why it might be bad for someone with an irregular heartbeat. But a new study finds that the opposite may be true and that individuals with AFib may benefit from regular coffee consumption.
The Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation study, or DECAF for short, was presented over the weekend at the annual American Heart Association conference in New Orleans. For the study, published in the journal JAMA, a global cadre of researchers from the University of San Francisco, University of Adelaide, and the University of Toronto sought to assay the effects on individuals with AFib.
As reported by NBC News, the researchers recruited 200 older adults with an average age of 70, all of whom were regular coffee drinkers at some point in the last five years and had experienced AFib. Over the course of the four-year clinical trial, participants were split at random into two groups: one that consumed no caffeine and one that had at least one cup every day. Participants would self-report their caffeine consumption during check-ins at one, three, and six months into the trial and would also undergo electrocardiograms or use wearable heart monitors or implantable cardiac devices to record any episodes of AFib or atrial flutter, a related condition.
Over the course of six months, 111 participants experienced atrial flutter. But, it occurred less to folks in the coffee drinking group, 47% versus 64% in the non-coffee cohort (who a third of admitted to drinking at least one cup of coffee during the study). Coffee drinkers also went longer before experiencing their first episode.
The study, according to lead author Dr. Gregory Marcus, establishes a causal relationship between moderate coffee consumption and decreased instances of AFib. This does not extend to other caffeinated beverages like energy drinks, nor does the study determine if there’s a limit to the protective properties; one cup of coffee a day was shown to be beneficial but it is unclear how multiple coffees would affect AFib. It should also be noted that caffeine affects different people differently, and all the individuals in this study were regular coffee drinkers at some point, meaning they were unlikely have caffeine sensitivity. But it’s yet another sign for coffee drinkers to continue what they are doing well into old age.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
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