Caffeine and Cardiovascular Disease: AHA Scientific Statement

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001454

by brandonb • 2 days ago

49 26 2 days ago

cubefox• 2 days ago

Unrelated: The document viewer on this website has a semitransparent gradient at the top, which shows a pretty strong horizontal Mach band [1] at its bottom. Any ideas how to avoid these in CSS?

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_bands

HPsquared2• 2 days ago

AHA as in American Heart Association. Not "Aha! Journals" (which would be a rather corny name for a scientific publisher)

rubyfan• 2 days ago

Why can’t it be both?

idontwantthis• 2 days ago

I thought it meant like this was an “Aha! Moment”

brandonb2• 2 days ago

(OP) Updated the title. This was unfortunately a mis-fire of some of HN's automatic title formatting.

tomjakubowski• 2 days ago

Well, there is Eureka[!] magazine: https://mathigon.org/eureka

HPsquared2• 2 days ago

That gets a whimsy pass for the recreational tilt.

bicepjai• 2 days ago

I thought it was an “Aha” moment :)

eur0pa3• 2 days ago

This statement is particularly interesting as it goes against the common sense, and the common suggestion that some (most?) cardiologists and doctors give to cardiac patients (lower / no caffeine).

However, some arrhythmologists and electrophysiologists sing a different tune. When I was diagnosed with something complex and novel that results in ventricular arrhythmia (PVCs and VT), my EP was, to put it mildly, uninterested in my consumption of caffeine. He said that, at worst, it made no significant difference. That was a few years ago. I was pleasantly surprised.

nabbed2• 2 days ago

I have paroxysmal afib. After my third episode, the doctor told me to quit consuming caffeine. Before quitting caffeine, I had an episode every 2 years. After quitting caffeine, I had an episode every 2 years. So I believe the statement that coffee is not associated with higher incidence of afib (at least in the general case... as the article states, your mileage may vary).

One the other hand, I find that dark chocolate has more negative heart effects: I associate dark chocolate, maybe unfairly, with premature beats (several 1000s per day). For that reason, I've avoided dark chocolate, which I love, for almost 25 years.

andriy_koval3• 2 days ago

This statement is particularly interesting as it goes against the common sense

could you give some explanation why it is against common sense exactly in your opinion?

eur0pa3• 2 days ago

Because usually doctors and cardiologists recommend people drink less caffeine, as it tends to increase blood pressure (hence a cascade of things you want to avoid in hypertensive and cardio patients), disrupts sleep quality to some degree, and might increase the ectopic burden

IndySun• 2 days ago

Concluded is "...dose-response and thresholds in individuals with hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Because there is already substantial evidence of heterogeneous effects within individuals...". Sensitivity to caffeine is one of the most accurate and valuable results you can get from a DNA test. We all know people that drink it all day and sleep all night, and the reverse.

jader201• 2 days ago

It appears this study does not conclude whether abstainers should pick up caffeine.

Under "Conclusions and Research Needs":

Last, in terms of applications of the potential beneficial effects of coffee intake, it is worth studying whether introducing or initiating regular coffee consumption among current abstainers yields positive cardiovascular health benefits.

In other words, more study is needed to determine whether abstainers should start consuming caffeine.

Additionally, the study suggests much of the cardiovascular benefits are from non-caffeine compounds in coffee/tea:

Although much of the evidence on caffeine derives from studies of coffee consumption, coffee contains numerous bioactive compounds beyond caffeine, including chlorogenic acids, diterpenes, trigonelline, and melanoidins. In large cohort studies, inverse associations between coffee intake and risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease have also been observed for decaffeinated coffee, supporting a role for noncaffeine components.

ipaddr• 2 days ago

Abstainers become regular drinkers in 2 weeks if they keep drinking coffee. What can be gained from testing abstainers for medium or long term health effects

y-c-o-m-b2• 2 days ago

Randomized controlled trial data among regular caffeinated coffee drinkers showed that caffeinated coffee decreases the risk of atrial fibrillation occurrence but increases the frequency of premature ventricular contractions

That is interesting because caffeine as low as ~80mg is one of my triggers for AFIB and arrhythmia and absolutely wrecks me within 15 minutes of consumption. I was not a regular coffee drinker though, so maybe the "regular drinkers" bit in that statement is the significant factor here.

brandonb2• 2 days ago

The lead author ran a study of personalized trigger mapping for Afib, using an n-of-1 study design: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/...

Unfortunately this particular intervention wasn't successful (not much difference between treatment and control groups). But conceivably, afib triggers is something that varies from person to person and perhaps a future design would tease this out.

y-c-o-m-b2• 2 days ago

Interesting to see dehydration on there. I never even thought of that as a possible trigger. It's good to see this is specifically looking at Paroxysmal AFIB patients as that's what I fall under. Mine is very mild and self-corrects within hours to a few days.

Biggest triggers are caffeine, alcohol, and sleep deprivation (correlated with my sleep apnea events) for me. I see exercise is only reported as being slightly higher than caffeine here, but exercise (stationary bike, strength training) usually causes my episodes to self-correct; I usually attribute this to the more controlled breathing during exercise, but I have no proof. I also seem to have a much larger threshold of triggering AFIB with alcohol than I do coffee. I have to reach the moderately drunk stage to induce a flare with alcohol. If I keep things near a light-buzz, I can typically get away with no issues.

ChrisArchitect• 2 days ago

AHA release: https://newsroom.heart.org/news/coffee-and-heart-health-how-...

Cider9986• 2 days ago

Can't really trust the AHA whose guidelines promoted ultra-processed sugar-filled food.

readthenotes1• 2 days ago

Once money or prestige gets in play, science leaves the room

andriy_koval3• 2 days ago

Wondering if you could give us specifics..

Caffeine and Cardiovascular Disease: AHA Scientific Statement

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