A new study suggests that your morning brew might be doing more than just perking you up — it could be protecting you from a range of serious heart conditions. Researchers working with the Endocrine Society have found that drinking a moderate amount of coffee is associated with a lower risk of developing multiple cardiometabolic diseases. In simpler terms, your daily cup of coffee (or three) might help ward off conditions like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
“Consuming three cups of coffee, or 200-300 mg caffeine, per day might help to reduce the risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity in individuals without any cardiometabolic disease,” says Dr. Chaofu Ke, the lead author of the study from Suzhou Medical College in China, in a media release.
So, what exactly is cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CM)? It’s a scientific term for having two or more cardiometabolic diseases at the same time. Think of it as a domino effect in your body — when one health issue triggers another and then another. As the general population gets older and older, CM is becoming an increasing concern for public health experts.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, didn’t just look at a handful of coffee drinkers. It drew from the UK Biobank, a massive health study that followed over 500,000 British adults. After excluding participants with unreliable information about their caffeine intake, the researchers ended up with a whopping 172,315 individuals for their caffeine study and 188,091 for their coffee and tea consumption analysis.
Compared to those who consumed little to no caffeine (less than 100mg per day), moderate coffee drinkers (3 cups per day) had a 48.1% lower risk of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity. Similarly, those who consumed 200-300 mg of caffeine per day from any source had a 40.7% reduced risk.
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