The unique bittersweet taste and strong aroma are not the only properties that make drinking coffee so special. Coffee is also rich in vitamins and substances packed with many health benefits.
Drinking coffee regularly is linked to many health benefits – reduced risk of developing certain cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and protection of DNA. What is even more interesting is that the list of health benefits doesn’t stop there.
Drinking Coffee – Clogged Arteries and Heart Attack
Every year thanks to scientific studies people find out about the different beneficial properties of this beverage. The latest studies confirm that drinking coffee is preventing the occurrence of clogged arteries and this is one of the main reasons for heart attacks.
These studies were focused on people who drink more than one cup of coffee every day. Scientists have found that regular coffee drinkers prevent the accumulation of calcium in the arteries directed to the heart. This accumulation is one of the signs that suggest being a sign of the possible development of heart disease. Of course, this doesn’t mean that if you become a coffee drinker today you will be perfectly safe from heart attacks. But, the results clearly show that drinking coffee is good for your heart.
Simple research on the Internet will show many articles that praise coffee and its benefits for various systems in the body, but there are also some reports about the disadvantages of drinking coffee regularly.
According to one study, increased intake of unfiltered coffee can lead to increased levels of bad cholesterol in the system. Another study suggests that certain categories of people may experience an increased risk of developing heart disease. In addition, research conducted a few years ago showed that coffee drinkers have a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes (one of the factors that lead to heart disease). The same study showed that those who drink two or more cups a day have lower chances of suffering a stroke. A new scientific study has shown that drinking coffee is good for your liver.
These studies and research can easily confuse ordinary people and this was one of the reasons why Korean researchers made interesting research about heart problems. The research involved more than 25.000 people who were regularly examined. None of these men and women had any heart disease or problems before the research started and the average age of all participants was 41.
Once they have shared information about their habits like alcohol, food, smoking, and coffee consumption they were scanned (CT scan) to see how many calcium deposits they have in the coronary arteries. If everything is alright, calcium should not be present in this part of the body and if it is present it is considered an early warning sign of heart disease. If these deposits are not treated they become more solid and affect the blood flow to the heart or lead to clots – heart attacks.
The examinations confirmed that none of them had signs of coronary heart disease, but about 15% had the presence of calcium in the coronary arteries. After checking their lifestyle habits it turned out that those who had between 3 and 5 cups of coffee a day had about 40% fewer calcium deposits in the coronary arteries compared to those who don’t drink coffee at all.
While this fact can be used as a presumption that there is a link between lowered heart disease risk and coffee drinking, this research cannot completely prove that. In addition, there is no explanation of how exactly coffee affects the buildup of calcium in this part of the body.
[Via The Guardian Heart, BBC News, Live Science, and Medical News Today]