Heavy coffee consumption may kill you!

I start my day with a cup of coffee. As of routine today morning I grabbed a cup of coffee and started browsing medical news to find something to post here. The first post that caught my attention says that coffee consumption may kill you. However after reading the entire post I felt much relieved since it says heavy coffee consumption is dangerous. Here’s a small review of that post.

Data suggests that consumption of coffee (>4 cups per day) may increase mortality in people younger than 55 years (1). Study conducted by Liu et al. has shown a positive association between coffee consumption and all cause mortality. The study was a prospective observational study and involved 44, 963 individuals. The 17-year median follow-up found that around 32% of coffee consuming population have died due to cardiovascular disease. Higher mortality was reported in people who drank more than 28 cups of coffee per week and were under 55 years old.

Reasons

The association between coffee consumption and cardiovascular disease is inconclusive (2). Moderate consumption of coffee seems to be beneficial whereas heavy consumption is always a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Previous findings proposed that diterpenes present in coffee increases cholesterol which may contribute to coronary heart disease. It was also found that caffeine also contributes to atherosclerosis and increases the risk of coronary heart disease.

The risk of coronary heart disease is due to diterpenes present in unfiltered coffee and on the other hand reduced risk of coronary disease in moderate coffee consumers is due to antioxidants found in coffee.

So before you have a sip of great coffee, just check if its not 4th cup of the day.

References

1. Liu J, Sui X, Lavie CJ, et al. Association of coffee consumption with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. Mayo Clin Proc. 2013 Aug 15.  [Epub ahead of print]. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23953850

2. Cornelis MC, El-Sohemy A. Coffee, caffeine, and coronary heart disease. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2007 Nov;10(6):745-51.