Coffee has long been touted as a healthful beverage which have an effect. However, many people still hesitate to drink it black. A recent study attempted to answer these doubts. They expressed a moderate amount of coffee every day can protect against heart failure.
"We found that moderate amounts of coffee consumption in fact be protective," said Elizabeth Mostofsky, leader of the study and researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. The study was published on June 26, 2012 in the Journal Circulation Heart Failure.
"There are many factors that can contribute to the risk of heart failure, but moderate amounts of coffee consumption is not one of them," he added.
Heart failure is a condition where the heart of the difficulty pumping enough blood throughout the body. Penyebanya could be due to hypertension or coronary artery disease. According to data from the National Institutes of Health, approximately five million people in the United States have heart failure and the disease accounts for 300,000 deaths annually.
The researchers concluded that about 8-ounces of caffeinated coffee per day (equivalent to four servings of coffee in the northern Europeans) can prevent heart failure, reducing the risk of the disease up to 11 percent.
Instead drink too much coffee - more than four or five cups of coffee a day - can actually increase the risk of heart problems.
In kajiaannya, researchers reviewed five studies of coffee consumption and risk of associated heart failure published between 2001 and 2011. The study involved 140 220 volunteers in Sweden and Finland. Nearly 6522 volunteers including heart failure.
This study did not distinguish between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, caffeinated coffee but tend to be the second choice in the northern European countries.
Several previous studies have shown that coffee consumption may protect against several diseases, including type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver, it may even improve performance during exercise.
While health experts still warn that pregnant women not consume coffee because they tend to have difficulty in controlling blood pressure, blood sugar, or palpitations (irregular heartbeats).
Investigators said he did not fully understand how coffee has a protective effect against heart disease. Mostofsky said, people who regularly drink coffee usually develop a tolerance to caffeine of coffee, which means they tend not to feel its effects. It may put them at a reduced risk of high blood pressure. In addition, the antioxidants in coffee are believed to protect cells from damage.
Even so, not all medical experts agree with the results of the study. "The evidence is not strong enough to recommend that people should drink coffee to protect themselves," said Dr. Arthur Klatsky of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, California, who was not involved in this study.
Klatsky, who has conducted research regarding the relationship between heart rhythm and coffee, said coffee drinking is a lifestyle factor. "Maybe people who drink coffee tend to exercise more or have better diets," he said.
However, he said, "people should not feel the need to avoid coffee if they are at risk for heart failure."