Good news for those who can't get their day started without a morning cup of joe -- a new study says coffee drinkers are less likely to be hospitalized for heart rhythm disturbances.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in California, found that men and women who said they drink four or more cups of coffee per day had an 18-per-cent lower risk of being hospitalized for heart rhythm disturbances.
Study participants who said they drank between one and three cups of coffee each day had a seven per cent reduction in their risk of hospitalization.
And when looking at participants who both did and did not report symptoms or a history of heart and respiratory disease, four cups of coffee per day was still linked to fewer hospitalizations for rhythm problems.
Dr. Arthur Klatsky, the study's lead investigator, said the link between drinking coffee and reduced risk of hospitalization for heart rhythm problems does not prove cause and effect.
"This study does not mean that people should drink coffee to prevent rhythm problems," Klatsky said in a statement. "It supports the idea that people who are at risk for rhythm problems or who have rhythm problems do not need to abstain from coffee."
The study included more than 130,000 men and women between the ages of 19 and 90. All were members of Kaiser Permanente, a large prepaid health care plan.
About two per cent of participants,o r 3,300 patients, were hospitalized for heart rhythm disturbances, 50 per cent of which were for atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm problem.
(Atrial fibrillation occurs when the electrical signal that triggers the heart to pump blood becomes irregular, leading to abnormal contractions of the atria, the heart's top two chambers.)
Those who drank the most coffee had the biggest reduction in risk of being hospitalized for a heart rhythm problem, the researchers found.
The reduced risk was similar in men, women, as well as between whites and African-Americans, the team found.
Klatsky said the findings may surprise coffee drinkers who report experiencing heart palpitations after consuming the caffeinated beverage. But the study's findings "should be reassuring to people who drink moderate amounts of coffee that their habit is not likely to cause a rhythm disturbance," he said.
The findings will be presented at the American Heart Association's Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
