Moderate coffee consumption could provide health perks, study says

Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Caffeine consumed from coffee or tea could provide more perks than staying awake, according to new research that found it could also lower the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

The study , published Tuesday in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, found consuming moderate amounts of caffeine -- defined as three cups of coffee or tea a day -- could lower the risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

"Coffee and caffeine consumption may play an important protective role in almost all phases of CM development," according to the study's lead author, Dr. Chaofu Ke, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Soochow University in Suzhou, China.

Cardiometabolic multimorbidity is defined as the co-existence of two or more cardiometabolic disorders , including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers in Tuesday's study focused on more than 175,000 participants in the UK Biobank, which is a biomedical database that follows patients longterm. All participants, whether they consumed caffeine or not, were free of any cardiometabolic diseases at the start of the study.

In analyzing the results, researchers found those who habitually drank moderate amounts of coffee or tea had the lowest risk for new, onset CM compared to those who did not.

Moderate consumption of coffee -- or three cups a day -- was found to reduce the risk of new onset cardiometabolic multimorbidity by 48.1%, according to the study. For those who drank between 200 and 300 milligrams of caffeine daily, their risk was reduced by 40.7%, while that number dropped for those who averaged less than one cup a day or did not drink caffeine, according to Ke.

Despite the results, researchers warn future studies are needed to validate the metabolic biomarkers associated with coffee, tea and caffeine consumption.

Tuesday's Endocrine Society study is not the first to tout the health benefits of coffee. A separate study in July compared coffee to a "mini-Mediterranean diet."

"The Mediterranean diet is, primarily, a plant-based diet, and coffee is a plant-based drink," researcher Stephen Safe, who is an expert in cancer prevention, told UPI in a phone interview.

"Drinking coffee has been shown to help people live longer," Safe added, calling it a "miracle drink."

While moderate amounts of caffeine can be beneficial to the heart, doctors warn evidence shows high doses of caffeine -- like those found in energy drinks -- may be harmful and could lead to heart arrhythmia.