Hopkins Insider: Waking Up To Coffee's Effects December 30, 1998
By Michael J. Klag, M.D., M.P.H. Is it the caffeine that's
linked to heart disease... or the way it's prepared? BALTIMORE
(Johns Hopkins Health Insider) - With concern growing about the
possible impact caffeine can have on your health, you may wonder
whether your choice in coffee should be "regular" or "decaf."
But the real question for the cholesterol-conscious is how their
morning cup is prepared. More than 50 years ago, Hopkins began a
still ongoing study that identified coffee, among other factors,
as a risk factor for heart attack. This study added fuel to an
already controversial fire on the relationship between coffee
and coronary heart disease. Other studies in the U.S. and abroad
seemed to confirm these findings. But what made our study
particularly valuable was that, because of its long follow-up,
it was able to track the risks of coffee drinking through
various periods in time: Beginning in 1975 and continuing to the
present, there wa