NBC NEWS – Drinking caffeinated coffee is safe for people with atrial fibrillation and may help protect against recurrence of the disorder, a new study finds.
More than 10 million Americans live with atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, a common heart disorder that causes heart palpitations and can lead to heart failure, blood clots and stroke.
Doctors have long tried to understand whether caffeine — which can increase heart rate and blood pressure — appears to trigger episodes that feel like a fluttering or thumping in the chest and cause dizziness or breathlessness.
“There is no standard advice for atrial fibrillation and caffeine,” said Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the DECAF (Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation?) study.
“It is very common for me to encounter patients who have stopped drinking caffeinated coffee only because their physician has told them to do so because of their atrial fibrillation.”
The results of the DECAF study, a four-year clinical trial examining the effects of drinking coffee in people with a history of irregular heart rhythm that had either resolved or been treated, were presented Sunday at the annual American Heart Association conference in New Orleans and published in JAMA. Marcus is an associate editor of JAMA.
The researchers recruited 200 older adults in Australia, Canada and the United States who were regular coffee drinkers at some point in the last five years. The average age was 70 and one-third were women.
Over six months, the participants were randomized to two groups: those who cut out caffeine, and those who had at least one cup every day.
Everyone self-reported their coffee and caffeinated beverage consumption during telehealth or video check-ins that occurred one, three and six months into the trial …
