We like coffee. Some forms of it might not be great for cholesterol, but no study has linked it to heart disease. Researchers are still studying the drink to see its effect on the body because there is still a lot we don’t know. Now, a new study has found that even a ridiculously high amount of coffee won’t damage your arteries. (https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2019/june/coffee-not-as-bad-for-heart-and-circulatory-system-as-previously-thought) Queen Mary Univ. of London scientists say that drinking as many as 25 cups of coffee a day will not cause stiffening in arteries.

The 8,000 participants were screened: none of them drank more than 25 cups a day. Surprisingly, that criteria did weed some people out! They divided people into three groups based on their coffee consumption: some folks drank less than a cup a day, many drank two or three, some ingested many more than three. When screened by factors like gender, age, race, habits, weight, the researchers saw no difference between the groups in arterial stiffening.

The study subjects had infrared pulse and wave tests and MRI heart scans for researchers to check their health. There are several conflicting studies. However, this research had a much larger sample group, so the results were far more concrete. The published work has ranged over a spectrum of telling people coffee is bad, good or just plain neutral when it comes to health. This more extensive study with reliable results is comforting news for those of us who enjoy coffee daily. Less than one cup of coffee a day won’t contribute to arterial hardening, and neither will 25 cups. Stiff arteries put extra pressure on the heart and heightened the risk of stroke or heart attack.

“The main message for people to take away from this is that coffee can be enjoyed as part of a healthy lifestyle, and coffee lovers can be reassured by this result in terms of blood vessel stiffness outcomes,” said Kenneth Fung, who led the data analysis at Queen Mary Univ. of London.

On average, the people in the high consumption group drank five cups of coffee a day. The heaviest coffee drinkers were likely to be male smokers who drank alcohol regularly. Researchers noted these facts because patterns emerged from the large group. However, they had no impact on the results.