Can Coffee help prevent Atherosclerosis?

The vast majority of us (and it certainly is more than 50% of us) drink coffee on a daily basis with an average of three cups daily. I know I myself enjoy my coffee in the morning and possibly an additional one in the afternoon prior to heading home from a busy day at work.

It now seems that a new study published offers some more evidence to the fact that coffee is good for us and that consuming more than three cups a day may lower our risks of atherosclerosis, one of the main risk factors for heart disease.

Now we all know that some of us cannot function without our morning dose of caffeine and once we have it, we become a fully functional person. It seems that there certainly is more than meets the eyes with this mainstay beverage for many of us, aside from the mental boost it provides us.

One study last year eluded to the fact that coffee showed a 70% reduction that in liver disease. Other research has linked it with a reduction in the risks of strokes and heart attack.

This new research published in the Journal of the American heart Association found that from a cohort of 4426 individuals that consumed more than 3 cups a day decreased the odds of sub-clinical atherosclerosis.

“ In multiple logistic regression analysis  intake of coffee and smoking status interaction, significant inverse associations were observed between coffee consumption (>3 cups/d) and CAC≥100 (odds ratio [OR]: 0.85 [95% confidence interval, 0.58–1.24] for ≤1 cup/d; OR: 0.73 [95% confidence interval, 0.51–1.05] for 1–3 cups/d; OR: 0.33 [95% confidence interval, 0.17–0.65] for >3 cups/d). Moreover, there was a statistically significant interaction effect for coffee consumption and smoking status (P=0.028 for interaction). After stratification by smoking status, the analysis revealed a lower OR of coronary calcification in never smokers drinking >3 cups/d (OR: 0.37 [95% confidence interval, 0.15–0.91]), whereas among current and former smokers, the intake of coffee was not significantly associated with coronary calcification.“

So for those of you who enjoy your daily dose of coffee and restrict yourself to just the one, here is a little bit of good news to increase your daily little treat.

Of note I would say that Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) scores are the most effective means of identifying possible or undetected heart disease and is much better at identifying any heart disease than the conventional Rutherford score, watch this space for more news.

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