Your heart health may be influencing your coffee orders, study finds. What that means
You may think your desire for espresso shots or a deliciously flavored latte are guided by your lack of sleep or craving for something sweet, but a new study suggests your coffee order is actually influenced by your heart’s health.
In other words, your body knows what it needs, or in this case, doesn’t need (all that caffeine).
Researchers from the University of South Australia found that among nearly 400,000 adults older than 39, those with high blood pressure, heart-related chest pain and irregular heartbeat were more likely to drink less coffee, decaffeinated coffee or avoid the beverage altogether compared to people without cardio problems.
What’s more, the link is based on genetics.
“Whether we drink a lot of coffee, a little, or avoid caffeine altogether, this study shows that genetics are guiding our decisions to protect our cardio health,” study lead researcher Elina Hyppönen, director of the Australian Centre for Precision Health at the University of South Australia, said in a statement. “If your body is telling you not to drink that extra cup of coffee, there’s likely a reason why. Listen to your body, it’s more in tune with your health than you may think.”
The researchers collected data from 390,435 people between 39 and 73 years old enrolled in the UK Biobank, a large, long-term biomedical database. Coffee consumption was self-reported, and information on systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate was based on hospital diagnoses, primary care records and/or self-reports.
The study suggests that non-coffee drinkers, or those who drink decaffeinated coffee, are more likely to experience “adverse effects” from caffeine, such as insomnia, upset stomach and restlessness, and are “more susceptible to high blood pressure.”
“People subconsciously self-regulate safe levels of caffeine based on how high their blood pressure is, and this is likely a result of a protective genetic mechanism,” Hyppönen said. “What this means is that someone who drinks a lot of coffee is likely more genetically tolerant of caffeine, as compared to someone who drinks very little.”
The researchers found there was a genetic explanation by using a method called Mendelian randomization.
This method uses measured variations in genes to examine the relationships between certain risk factors and health outcomes for different diseases.
The study was published in March in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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