It seems like every time we turn around there is a new study telling us coffee is either great for us or absolutely terrible. This new research comes from ESC Congress, and was performed by Dr Lucio Mos, a cardiologist at Hospital of San Daniel del Friuli in Udine, Italy. In it Dr Mos details how dangerous drinking coffee can be for young adults with hypertension as it can lead to a “four-fold” increase in cardiovascular risk, high blood pressure, and glucose metabolism, and even diabetes.
THE METHOD
This study has been on-going for over 12 years, and has more than 1200 participants in it (between ages 18 and 45). The participants are all from another on-going study called HARVEST (Hypertension and Ambulatory Recording VEnetia STudy), which is a long timer prospective study that includes 17 hypertension units in Italy.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW COFFEE MAY AFFECT YOU HERE!
These patients all had untreated stage 1 hypertension, which means their stoic blood pressure was somewhere between 140 and 159 mmHG, or they had diastolic blood pressure between 90 and 99 mmHg, though it was sometimes both. Dr Mos also broke up coffee drinkers into three categories based on how many cups of coffee they would typically consume over the course of a day: non-drinkers having no cups of coffee, moderate drinkers having between one and three cups of coffee, and heavy drinkers having more than four cups of coffee per day.
Of the group of 1200 participants, 26.3 percent said they were non-drinkers, 62.7 percent claimed they were moderate coffee drinkers, and 10 percent were basically caffeine guzzlers.
THE RESULTS
Based on Dr Mos’ findings, there seems to be a strong correlation between the amount of cups had per day and the risk of hypertension that would need to be treated. Most of the risk seemed to placed on heavy coffee drinkers, though that is exactly what the study was about. According to the paper published at escardio.org, the study examined the long term effects of coffee drinking and the risks of developing prediabetes. The results, in this case, showed, on average, a 100 percent increased risk of prediabetes in heavy drinkers.
The real range lies between a 30 and 210 percent increase, but Dr Mos says it depends greatly on the person’s CYP1A2 genotype, which is what determines how fast a person metabolizes caffeine. People who are slower to metabolize caffeine have a significantly higher risk of prediabetes than those who have no metabolic issues.
FOLLOWING UP
After 12.5 years, the participants were required to report back in to answer follow-up questions. Over the years, there were over 60 cardiovascular events. According to the study, “About 80% were heart attacks and the remainder included strokes, peripheral artery disease and kidney failure.” Now, over a period of time that lengthy, there are certainly other factors to consider when it comes to heart disease. Perhaps heavy coffee drinkers also have a tendency to eat a McDonald’s breakfast every morning. The study says it isolated things such as lifestyle factors, sex, body mass index, cholesterol, and other variables that could also lead to an increased risk in cardiovascular events, but the study fails to provide information on how this was accomplished.
“Our study shows that coffee use is linearly associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events in young adults with mild hypertension. This relationship seems to be at least partially mediated by the long term effect of coffee on blood pressure and glucose metabolism. These patients should be aware that coffee consumption may increase their risk of developing more severe hypertension and diabetes in later life and should keep consumption to a minimum.”
As is usually the case, moderation seems to be the constant in all things coffee related.
