Coffee Does Not Cause Heart Palpitations; Maybe Good For Cardiovascular Health

Drinking coffee has long been associated with fears of caffeine causing dangerous heart palpitations, which has deterred many people from drinking it. New studies have shown that regular coffee consumption does not trigger dangerous palpitations and can actually be good for cardiovascular health.

Consuming caffeine has long been believed to cause extra heartbeats. In effect, irregular health beats may occasionally lead to heart or stroke-related deaths.

However, scientists at the University of California in San Francisco have proved otherwise. They even suggest that non-caffeine drinkers are missing out on the potential health benefits of eating and drinking caffeine food and drinks such as coffee, tea and chocolate.

"Clinical recommendations advising against the regular consumption of caffeinated products to prevent disturbances of the heart's cardiac rhythm should be reconsidered," according to Dr. Gregory Marcus as cited by Daily Mail. The doctor behind the study continues to say that experts might have been unnecessarily discouraging such consumption.

Excessive premature atrial contractions (PACs) and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are abnormalities that have been tied to caffeine composition through many trials and studies. However, these trials were performed decades ago and did not use such abnormalities as the primary outcome.

The study analyzed coffee, tea and chocolate consumption of 1,388 participants with 61 percent of them have more than one caffeinated product daily. Researchers did not find any difference in the number of cardiovascular abnormalities per hour across levels of caffeinated product and drink intake. Frequent consumption of such products was also not associated with extra heartbeats.

In March 2015, a large study on 25,000 adults from South Korea suggested that people who drink three to five cups of coffee a day cut the risks of getting coronary heart diseases, according to NHS.  The coffee drinkers were less likely to develop calcium deposits, which is one of the first signs of atherosclerosis or the hardening of the arteries.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, did not include participants with pre-existing and persistent extra heartbeats. Health guidelines state that if a patient has premature extra beats, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine should be eliminated from their diet.