Whether coffee is good or bad for your health has always caused a lot of controversy. Having discovered not long ago that it is good for your eyes or even your liver, new research now links it to heart health. So much so, that coffee and the consequent reduction of calcium in the coronary arteries (an indicator of the existence of atherosclerosis) thanks to it, minimizes the chances of suffering a myocardial infarction . The results have been published in the British Medical Journal.
Specifically, the study found that drinking three or four cups of this well-known and stimulating drink every day influences the good condition of blood vessels. To reach this conclusion, the team of researchers from the Samsung Kangbuk Hospital in Seoul (South Korea) examined 25,138 participants, both men and women, with a mean age of 41 years and no heart problems.
After performing several tests, such as computed tomography (CT), which allows to see the calcium levels in the coronary arteries and dividing the participants according to their coffee consumption (no cup, one, less than three, five or more than five) , found that the group with the least prevalence of atherosclerotic plaques was the one that drank three or four cups of coffee a day, representing a 41% reduction. Thus, the percentages for reducing the risk of heart attack were as follows:
-Drinking a cup of coffee a day reduced the risk by 23%.
-Drinking between one and two cups of coffee a day reduced the risk by 34%.
– Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day reduced the risk by 41% .
-Drinking more than five cups of coffee a day reduced the risk by 19%.
The results show that “although this stimulant has been linked to an increase in cholesterol and blood pressure, it has also been associated in the long run with better insulin sensitivity and less chance of developing type 2 diabetes, a risk factor for atherosclerosis ”, the authors explain, further arguing that “ in moderate amounts, not only does it not increase cardiovascular risk, but it decreases it ” .
