Numerous studies—including one recent analysis in Stroke and another in Circulation: Heart Failure—have focused on how drinking coffee can benefit a person’s heart health.
Consuming too much coffee, however, can actually lead to a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease, according to new findings published in Clinical Nutrition.
Researchers explored the health and self-reported drinking habits of more than 360,000 participants from the UK Biobank database, working to learn how coffee intake may affect a person’s plasma lipid profile. Overall, the team found that heavy coffee consumption—at least six cups per day—is associated with increasing the amount of lipids in the blood, leading to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease.
Also, running numerous Mendelian randomization analyzes, the authors found that each additional cup of coffee can push lipid levels ever higher.
“There’s certainly a lot of scientific debate about the pros and cons of coffee, but while it may seem like we’re going over old ground, it’s essential to fully understand how one of the world’s most widely consumed drinks can impact our health,” co-author Elina Hyppönen, PhD, a professor at the University of South Australia, said in a prepared statement. “In this study we looked at genetic and phenotypic associations between coffee intake and plasma lipid profiles—the cholesterols and fats in your blood—finding causal evidence that habitual coffee consumption contributes to an adverse lipid profile which can increase your risk of heart disease. High levels of blood lipids are a known risk factor for heart disease, and interestingly, as coffee beans contain a very potent cholesterol-elevating compound (cafestol), it was valuable to examine them together.”
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Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.