Coffee's Complex Effects on Health: More Steps, Less Sleep, and Varied Heart Rhythms

A study that looked at the effect of coffee on numerous aspects of health, including heart arrhythmias, activity level, sleep, and blood sugar has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

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Health Benefits and Risks of Drinking Coffee: What Science Tells Us

Researchers discovered that persons who drank coffee took more steps on average per day but slept slightly less than those who did not. Coffee drinkers experienced more premature ventricular contractions, a form of an additional heartbeat. According to the research, consuming coffee has varying effects on different people, and consumers might seek guidance from specialists for proper coffee recommendations. Coffee is a popular beverage all around the world. As a result, it is a popular research topic. For all, if a lot of people drink it, it seems like a good idea to understand how it affects health. According to a reliable source, coffee may be related to a lower risk of death. It may also lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and certain forms of cancer.

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How to Brew the Perfect Cup of Coffee: Tips and Techniques for Coffee Lovers

Yet, just because coffee has numerous potential health benefits does not imply that everyone should consume it. It also matters how people drink their coffee. Some of coffee's potential health benefits can be negated by adding cream and sugar.

Dr. Chip Lavie, cardiologist and director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at Ochsner Health said, “Most studies suggest that coffee consumption is associated with better survival, less cardiovascular death, lower stroke and heart failure, less chronic hypertension (whereas a very high dose of acute intake can transiently raise blood pressure), and improvements in some risk factors, such as type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia. These benefits are mostly gathered from large observational studies.”

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Effect of Coffee: More Steps, Less Sleep

This study examined cardiac rhythms, sleep, daily step counts, and blood sugar levels in connection to coffee drinking.

The study involved 100 healthy adult participants and was conducted as a randomized experiment. The data was collected over two weeks. Participants wore ECG monitors to analyze cardiac rhythms and Fitbit devices to track step counts and sleep duration. Finally, participants were required to wear a continuous glucose monitor to check their blood sugar levels.

The participants were then given the option of drinking coffee for two days or abstaining from caffeine for two days. These random assignments continued for fourteen days, ensuring that no individual drank or abstained from coffee for more than two days.

On coffee-consuming days, participants had a 50% increase in premature ventricular contractions. Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are a sort of additional heartbeat that originates in the lower chambers of the heart. However, there was no link seen between drinking one cup of coffee and higher PVCs.

Dr. Gregory Marcus, cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, explained the study's primary findings, "Both randomized assignment to consume coffee and the amount of coffee ingested were linked with more PVCs, significantly more steps walked, and significantly less sleep the following evening."

However, the outcomes differed between subjects, which could be related to how quickly they digested the caffeine.

There were some limitations to the study. For starters, the study cannot demonstrate a causal relationship between the variables stated. Second, it only comprised a small number of healthy volunteers, limiting the generalizability of the conclusions.

Researchers also note that some of the findings could be attributed to caffeine withdrawal in individuals or factors connected to the study not being blinded. Participants' adherence to instructions and the study's methodologies also hampered researchers.

For example, because the Fitbit devices used were not clinical-grade, the data collected about sleep was imprecise. It's also likely that some of the effects were caused by other coffee constituents and weren't simply due to caffeine.

What Does This Mean for Coffee Enthusiasts?

It is critical to exercise caution when interpreting these findings. They do not imply that coffee is inherently hazardous or that people should refrain from consuming it. "These data suggest that a customized approach to coffee consumption may be the most appropriate strategy for identifying the effects on health," the study's authors stated.

PVCs can be hazardous, although they are also usually harmless. "Although PVCs are considered more serious than PACs, they are also considered relatively benign, especially if there is no underlying severe heart disease and unless they are bothersome to patients, but this is generally only the case when extremely frequent, much more so than the very minor increase noted with more coffee," said Chip Lavie, M.D.

Dr. Marcus further mentioned that PVCs may raise the risk of heart failure in some persons. "Our findings reveal complicated and variable impacts that are heterogeneous from individual to individual," he added. "I hope that people will use this information to adapt their coffee consumption to best meet their proclivities and health goals." Dr. Ahmad Iqbal, an interventional cardiologist at Memorial Hermann, also shared his thoughts, "If a load of normally benign arrhythmias (such as PACs/PVCs) is significant enough, it might develop other difficulties such as atrial fibrillation or even heart failure. If one is having symptoms in the setting of heavy coffee consumption, it is advised to decrease intake and seek cardiology consultation. [T]his study is not designed to derive long-term conclusions but rather generate more hypotheses that may eventually help understand significant CV [cardiovascular] outcomes and mortality related to coffee consumption.”

Source-Medindia