Coffee habit HELPS after a heart attack

It sounds like an unlikely prescription, but drinking at least one coffee a day could be the secret to survival after a heart attack, researchers have found.

Patients who drink one to two cups a day are 20 per cent less likely to die prematurely from heart damage than those who never touch coffee, while those downing more than two are nearly half as likely to die early.

Around 70 million cups of coffee are consumed every day.

The popular beverage has been shown to protect against liver cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and even strokes.

Last year, experts found three to five cups a day reduced the risk of dying from heart disease, as well as incurable conditions like Parkinson’s.

Now a team has found coffee may also help those who have already had a heart attack.

The findings are potentially very significant because this group of patients is at high risk of another heart attack, or developing heart failure as a result of severe scarring in the cardiac muscle.

The team tracked 3,271 victims, including 604 who survived but later died as a result of their condition.

The patients had all taken part in research which chronicled their coffee-drinking habits as part of a wider lifestyle study.

The results, showed ‘heavy’ drinkers – those consuming two or more cups a day – were the least likely to die prematurely.

‘Light’ drinkers who got through just one or two daily were also at much lower risk of an early death, with the dangers reduced by about a fifth.

Few studies have looked at how coffee might improve the health of this large group of patients.

The researchers said it’s still not entirely clear how coffee might boost the heart but noted there are a whole host of potentially beneficial ingredients in coffee beans, not just caffeine.

These include health-boosting plant chemicals, called flavonoids, as well as compounds called melanoidins, which can reduce the build-up of fatty deposits.

Some evidence also suggests coffee improves the health of the body’s blood vessels.

In a report on the results they said: ‘Many biologically active ingredients are known to be present in coffee.

 ‘The mechanism behind how it protects the heart is unclear. But drinking coffee following a heart attack was associated with a reduced risk of mortality.’

Tracy Parker, heart health dietician, said until now, research had mainly shown that drinking up to five cups of coffee a day was ‘not harmful’ to cardiovascular health.

‘But this study goes further,’ she said. ‘The researchers suggest that, following a heart attack, regularly drinking more than two cups of coffee a day is associated with reduced risk of death.

‘Yet this analysis does not account for the effects of other aspects of the diet, so it is unclear whether the coffee itself is causing improved heart health.

‘More research is needed to answer this question and explore whether there is something in coffee specifically that is good for the heart.’

She added that the crucial issue for heart attack survivors is maintaining a healthy lifestyle to keep the heart as healthy as possible.

Source: Daily mail

N.H.Kh