That morning cup o' joe or mid-afternoon coffee pick-me-up may
play a role in keeping your heart healthy, depending on how much
you drink. A meta-analysis of five previously completed
prospective studies finds that drinking two 8-ounce cups of
coffee a day gives people an 11% lower risk of developing heart
failure, compared to people who don't consume any coffee. The
analysis, published in the American Heart Association's journal
Circulation: Heart Failure, reviewed five studies conducted
between 2001 and 2011 and included a total of 140,220 patients.
"Heart failure shares risk factors with other cardiovascular
diseases and high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes are
particularly strong risk factors for heart failure," explains
Elizabeth Mostofsky, the first author of the analysis and a post
doctoral research fellow at the Cardiovascular Epidemiology
Research Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "We think
coffee is lowering the risk for diabetes which is lowering the
risk for heart failure." But don'