Settling the Caffeine Debate: Habitual Coffee Drinking can Lower Risk for Arrhythmia

According to a prospective cohort study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, increasing amounts of habitual coffee intake were associated with a progressive lower risk of arrhythmia, particularly for atrial fibrillation and supraventricular tachycardia, with no evidence that genetically determined differences in caffeine metabolism modify these associations.

Traditionally, caffeinated beverages were thought to be associated with increased risk of arrhythmia. Consequently, restriction or avoidance of caffeinated beverages had been recommended for certain patients based on small studies suggesting an association between arrhythmia and caffeine. On the other hand, caffeine has also been associated with a decreased risk of diabetes, cancer, and mortality.^1-3 To help sort out the true relationship between caffeine and arrhythmia, researchers collected prospective data from the UK Biobank from 502,543 participants regarding the amount of coffee/caffeine drinking versus no intake at all. A total of 386,258 participants were included in the final analysis and these subjects were followed for a mean of 4.5 years via electronic medical records for new onset tachyarrhythmias. Self-reported amounts of coffee intake were obtained. The study analyzed from zero to more than 6 cups of coffee per day in progressive increments.

Good news for coffee drinkers ☕️☕️
Debunking the dogma that coffee increases the risk of heart rhythm disturbances, from >386,000 people, 4.5 year follow-up, including putative genomic risk variants@JAMAInternalMed https://t.co/9bBihDfB3A @uk_biobank pic.twitter.com/V6yGeNg7Fp

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) July 19, 2021

Remarkably, not only was caffeine intake associated with a decrease in arrhythmia burden, but there was actually a 3% reduction in incident arrhythmia in a dose dependent fashion with every additional cup of coffee.⁴ Further subgroup analysis demonstrated that coffee consumption was also associated with decreased incidence of atrial fibrillation and supraventricular tachycardia. The researchers also developed a caffeine metabolism polygenic score and reported that the risk reduction of arrhythmia was associated with coffee intake irrespective of the polygenic score. Mendelian randomization failed to provide evidence that caffeine consumption was associated with arrhythmias. Mechanisms proposed for this benefit are attributed to possible antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of coffee as well as beneficial catecholamine effects.⁵

It is important to note that this is an observational study comparing habitual coffee drinkers vs. non-drinkers and association should not be misconstrued as causation. Furthermore, this study did not evaluate other potential outcomes (gastritis, gastroesophageal disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and mortality) of coffee consumption.⁶

Overall, the results from this large prospective, population-based community cohort study demonstrates that greater amounts of habitual coffee consumption may provide protective effects against the development of arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation and supraventricular tachycardia and may be welcoming news for coffee drinkers everywhere.

Coffee Consumption and Incident Tachyarrhythmias

"increasing amounts of habitual coffee intake were associated with a lower risk of arrhythmia"#Coffee #Tachyarrhythmias #Arrhythmia #INPST #globalhealth #nutrition #OpenScience #scicomm #WomenInSTEM #STEM #PhDVoice #FoodTech https://t.co/qLQ3widx62

— Atanas G. Atanasov (@_atanas_) July 21, 2021

References

1. Bøhn SK, Blomhoff R, Paur I. Coffee and cancer risk, epidemiological evidence, and molecular mechanisms. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. 2014;58(5):915-930.
2. Ding M, Satija A, Bhupathiraju SN, et al. Association of coffee consumption with total and cause-specific mortality in 3 large prospective cohorts. Circulation. 2015;132(24):2305-2315.
3. Santos RMM, Lima DRA. Coffee consumption, obesity and type 2 diabetes: a mini-review. European Journal of Nutrition. 2016;55(4):1345-1358.
4. Kim E-j, Hoffmann TJ, Nah G, Vittinghoff E, Delling F, Marcus GM. Coffee consumption and incident tachyarrhythmias: Reported behavior, Mendelian randomization, and their interactions. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2021.
5. Cornelis MC. The impact of caffeine and coffee on human health. Nutrients. 2019;11(2):416.
6. Moura-Nunes N, Perrone D, Farah A, Donangelo CM. The increase in human plasma antioxidant capacity after acute coffee intake is not associated with endogenous non-enzymatic antioxidant components. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 2009;60(sup6):173-181.