Those of you who love coffee will love this news. Scientists have found that regular caffeine consumption doesn’t trigger heart palpitations and that it can actually be good for your heart health.
The scientists at the University of California, San Francisco say that people should enjoy their caffeinated drinks and chocolate. As Dr. Gregory Marcus explained,
“Clinical recommendations advising against the regular consumption of caffeinated products to prevent disturbances of the heart’s cardiac rhythm should be reconsidered, as we may unnecessarily be discouraging consumption of items like chocolate, coffee and tea that might actually have cardiovascular benefits. Given our recent work demonstrating that extra heartbeats can be dangerous, this finding is especially relevant.”
This new study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed coffee, tea and chocolate consumption of 1,388 randomly selected people and excluding those with persistent extra heartbeats. 61% of the participants had more than one caffeinated product a day. The researchers didn’t find any differences in the heart beats of those who had caffeine and those who didn’t; and this was true even with more frequent consumption of these products.
As lead author Shalini Dixit said, “This was the first community-based sample to look at the impact of caffeine on extra heartbeats, as previous studies looked at people with known arrhythmias. Whether acute consumption of these caffeinated products affects extra heartbeats requires further study.”
So for now, drink up and eat chocolate in moderation – and enjoy.
