Coffee vs Atrial Fibrillation!

There’s a lot of popular confusion about coffee (and/or caffeine)’s health benefits and risk, a good number of which we’ve cleared up here: The Bitter Truth About Coffee (or is it?) ← this is a mythbusting edition, focussing on coffee specifically, rather than caffeine in general.

…as well as here, focussing on caffeine rather than coffee: Caffeine: Cognitive Enhancer Or Brain-Wrecker?

Usually, when we talk about coffee (and/or caffeine) and heart health, the question is more about potential increase of health risks, often because of dipterpenes such as cafestol and kahweol, which can raise LDL cholesterol

• Make Your Coffee Heart-Healthier!
• Machine-Dispensed Coffee & Heart Health

These heart-negative effects are usually considered the “payment” in return for the fact that coffee has a lot of health benefits, including, for example:

• 43% reduced risk of liver cancer for coffee-drinkers
• 53% reduced suicide risk for coffee-drinkers
• Coffee is the world’s biggest source of antioxidants
• 65% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s for coffee-drinkers
• 67% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes for coffee-drinkers*

See also: The Other Thing Coffee Does To Your Blood Sugars

As well as other benefits, such as Coffee & Your Gut ← gut bacteria do not, by the way, have a preference about how you make your coffee or whether it is caffeinated or not

Aaaaaand, we recently shared new research on how coffee appears to be protective against frailty in older age. We say “appears to be”, because it was a longitudinal study and so technically we cannot say categorically that the link was causal, but the association is very strong, to the point that it’d take quite some explaining if it’s anything other than the coffee consumption that caused it.

You can read about that here: Coffee vs Frailty!

So, what’s this about coffee vs atrial fibrillation?

This may make your heart flutter (or not, in fact)

Researchers (Dr. Catherine Lee et al.) looked at whether drinking caffeinated coffee affects recurrence of atrial fibrillation after cardioversion (a medical procedure used to restore a normal heart rhythm when someone has an abnormal one).

The study was a randomized clinical trial of 200 adults with persistent atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter after electrical cardioversion (there also exist some drug-based methods of cardioversion, but they weren’t used in these 200 people).

These were randomized into two groups:

• One group drank at least one cup of caffeinated coffee daily
• The other group avoided all coffee and caffeine for 6 months

And the results?

• The coffee-drinkers enjoyed a 39% lower rate of recurrence
• Recurrence happened later in the coffee group, if at all
• Fewer hospitalizations were observed in the coffee group

As for why this works, the researchers noted that caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, while coffee’s anti-inflammatory and blood pressure–lowering effects could also play a role in reducing the atrial fibrillation risk.

You can read the paper in full, here: Caffeinated Coffee Consumption or Abstinence to Reduce Atrial Fibrillation

Not a fan of coffee?

If you’re not a fan of coffee, but also not a fan of frailty, cancer, Alzheimer’s, suicide, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and more, fear not; there is a supplement option available:

Green Coffee Bean Extract: Coffee Benefits Without The Coffee?

Enjoy!