If you like a cup of coffee in the morning, followed by another... followed by another then don't worry. You may actually be doing yourself a favour because a study has found that drinking up to three cups a day can reduce your risk of dying from heart disease.
Bet you're feeling smug now.
Experts from Semmelweis University in Budapest looked into the association between coffee habits and their impact on things such as heart attacks and strokes.
The researchers discovered that moderate coffee consumption can actually reduce the risk of stroke by up to 21 percent compared to those who don't drink coffee at all.
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On top of that, the risk of dying from heart disease can be lowered by 17 percent.
Judit Simon, author of the study and cardiologist, explained: "This is the largest study to systematically assess the cardiovascular effects of regular coffee consumption in a population without diagnosed heart disease.
"Our results suggest that regular coffee consumption is safe, as even high daily intake was not associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality after a follow-up of 10 to 15 years.
"Moreover, 0.5 to 3 cups of coffee per day was independently associated with lower risks of stroke, death from cardiovascular disease and death from any cause."
Dr Simon and other colleagues compared the overall health and coffee consumption habits of 468,629 adults over a period of 11 years.
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The team divided the subjects' information - which were collected from the UK Biobank - into thee groups based on their intake. Of the data collection, 22 percent reported not drinking coffee regularly, 58.4 percent said they drank half to three cups a day and 19.5 percent reported more than three cups.
None of the participants - who had an average age of around 56.2 years - reported any signs of heart disease at the beginning of the study.
In turn, this enabled the experts to find that those drinking up to three cups a day had a 12 percent lower risk of death from any cause and a 17 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
Dr Simon went on to explain: "The imaging analysis indicated that compared with participants who did not drink coffee regularly, daily consumers had healthier sized and better functioning hearts.
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"This was consistent with reversing the detrimental effects of ageing on the heart.
"Our findings suggest that coffee consumption of up to 3 cups per day is associated with favourable cardiovascular outcomes."
Just popping the kettle on for round two.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Interesting, Coffee, Community