Drinking at least one cup of coffee a day can help reduce the risk of heart failure, the researchers said on Tuesday.
The report, which was published Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure, determined that there was a benefit to consuming java by looking at data from three major studies.
Compared with people who don’t drink coffee, java lovers have been found to have a reduced risk of heart failure by between 5 and 12% for every cup they drink daily, according to a survey by Framingham Heart and the Cardiovascular Health.
That was the case for up to three cups of coffee, the study said.
A second study by Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities found that the risk of heart failure remained the same by not drinking coffee or drinking a cup a day.
But the same study found that two cups of coffee were associated with a 30% reduction in the risk of heart failure.
Meanwhile, decaffeinated coffee did not have the same benefits as regular java – and a study suggested that it may be related to an increased risk of heart problems.
Dr. David Kao, an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said that this suggests that caffeine may be the key factor linked to heart health.
“The association between caffeine and reduced risk of heart failure was surprising,” said Kao in a statement.
“Coffee and caffeine are often considered by the general population to be harmful to the heart because people associate them with palpitations, high blood pressure, etc.”