Is Coffee Safe For Your Heart? "You're a coffee drinker. What's the deal with coffee supposedly being bad for your heart?" "Coffee is bad for you." "Coffee is good for you." To say that the message about coffee has mixed is an understatement. At best. Now, comes a study suggesting that coffee may not be harmful to the heart after all, especially in older people with no significant risk factors for heart disease. This study, published in the February 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, specifically studied people aged 65 and older. How Coffee May Protect The Heart Media reports of this story have been a little misleading. It's not that coffee itself does anything for the heart. Coffee doesn't heal the heart or reverse existing damage. It simply raises blood pressure through its caffeine content and that's probably what researchers, by their own admission, noticed. "Some of the news stories about coffee and its effect on the heart have been very misleading." If that's confusing, consider that people who fall into the study's main target group--those age 65 and older--tend to have blood pressure that runs on the low side of normal. So it's likely that the protective effect is nothing more than caffeine's stimulating effect bringing their low blood pressure into a more "normal" range. This would explain why protective effects were not seen in study participants who had blood pressure that tended toward the higher end of the "normal" range. And it would also explain why de-caffeinated beverages--even coffee--didn't seem to offer the same protective benefit. So, Should We Drink Coffee Or Not? Only your doctor can tell you if caffeine is appropriate for you. And only he or she can evaluate your risk of heart disease. If you have any questions about your caffeine intake, or you simply need more information about how the foods you eat affect your heart health, speak to a qualified medical professional. References: Greenberg JA, Dunbar CC, Schnoll R, et al. Caffeinated beverage intake and the risk of heart disease mortality in the elderly: a prospective analysis. Am J Clin Nutr 2007; 85:392-398.