Occasional Coffee Drinkers at Risk for Heart Attack

The consumption of coffee increases the risk of a heart attack, especially in occasional coffee drinkers and people with cardiac risk factors. A study in the September issue of Epidemiology investigated the effects of coffee on heart attack. Researchers looked at over 500 cases of nonfatal heart attack between 1994 and 1998 in Costa Rica, a country with a similar coffee intake as North America. Each patient completed a survey of their coffee habits within two weeks of leaving the hospital. After analysis of the coffee habits, researchers found that 80 patients had consumed a minimum of one cup of coffee before the attack. This meant that consuming a cup of coffee increased the risk of a heart attack by 50% in the hour after consumption. The study also found that occasional coffee drinkers-those who drink at most one cup of coffee a day-were four times more likely to have a heart attack than heavy coffee drinkers, defined as those who drank 4 or more cups of coffee per day. The findings suggest that drinking coffee may trigger a heart attack. The researchers also beleive that this effect would be greatest in the morning, at the time with the lowest blood caffeine levels.