When it comes to coffee and heart health, the two are rarely believed to go together. They share a relationship resembling water and oil, at least that is what was strongly believed by both the medical community and society at large.

However, a growing body of evidence has disproved this point, to the extent that coffee has in fact been proven to have benefits for your heart and circulatory system.

Interested to know more about the link between coffee and heart health? Let’s explore how coffee can benefit you in your pursuit of optimal circulatory health.

Coffee’s Benefits Proven In Studies

A study conducted by Harvard University and Published in The Journal Circulation (Ding et al. 2015) found that coffee drinking reduced death from all causes, but of particular significance is the reduced risk of stroke and heart attacks, especially when compared to people who did not drink coffee.

The findings also confirm a similar study on coffee consumption and reducing type 2 diabetes risk, which both confirm that drinking coffee reduces the risk of death by all causes, but more specifically drinking 3-5 cups per day had the most significant benefit of all. Drinking more than 5 cups per day did not offer further benefit.

This is just the most recent study in a string of studies confirming coffee’s heart friendly effects. For example, analysis of 36 studies on coffee published in 2013 in the Journal Circulation as well, encompassed over one million people and found that those that regularly drank moderate coffee were less likely to develop heart disease.

What do all these studies mean? Just simply that coffee is not bad for your heart, or for your circulatory system for that matter. This is in contrast to the tightly held belief that coffee is bad for heart health.

How Does Coffee Benefit The Heart?

Coffee is now known to be one of the richest sources of nutrition in the western diet. It is loaded with phytochemicals, many of which have potent anti-inflammatory effects.

Many diseases relating to the heart are caused by inflammatory conditions, including atherosclerotic blockages and heart disease. Antioxidants have been shown to reduce the incidence of death.

The other benefits of coffee that could positively influence heart health include:

Improving Blood Sugar Control– it is well known that diabetics have higher than average risk of also developing heart disease or suffering from strokes. Coffee reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, in turn reducing the likelihood of suffering from diseases of the cardiovascular system.

Coffee Promotes Oral Health– oral health and heart disease is now established as having a strong correlation, with poor health associated with a higher incidence of heart disease. Coffee has the ability to slow down the progression of periodontal disease, and may actually reverse it.

Coffee Reduces Risk Of Death After Experiencing A Heart Attack– though it is touted as primarily having the ability to prevent heart disease in the first place, it was also found that coffee does reduce the risk of death from subsequent heart attacks in persons who have already experienced a prior heart attack. This is noteworthy as people who have experienced a heart attack may be much more wary of drinking coffee, though this does not need to be the case.

Conclusion

There is a growing body of evidence that proves coffee is not detrimental to heart health and is actually beneficial for the majority of people. If anxiety and palpitations occur from drinking regular coffee, decaffeinated varieties are excellent as they still deliver beneficial effects.