Another Coffee Benefit: Less Heart Failure

The caffeine in coffee can speed you up. But coffee may also slow down your risk for heart failure, if you stick to two cups a day.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) found that coffee drinkers who down two cups daily have an 11 percent lower risk of heart failure.

“Our results did show a possible benefit, but like with so many other things we consume, it really depends on how much coffee you drink,” says lead author Elizabeth Mostofsky. “And compared with no consumption, the strongest protection we observed was at about four European, or two eight-ounce American, servings of coffee per day.”

“There is a good deal of research showing that drinking coffee lowers the risk for type 2 diabetes,” says senior author Murray Mittleman, director of BIDMC’s cardiovascular epidemiological research program. “It stands to reason that if you lower the risk of diabetes, you also lower the risk of heart failure.”