Coffee’s good for the heart

IT sounds an unlikely prescription but drinking a coffee a day could be the secret to survival after a heart attack, researchers have found.

Patients who drink one to two cups daily are 20 per cent less likely to die prematurely from heart damage than those who never touch coffee, while those drinking more than two are nearly half as likely to die early.

The findings, by a team at York University, support research suggesting that the drink, once considered a potential danger to the heart, may have a protective effect.

Health-boosting plant chemicals flavonoids, as well as melanoidins, which can reduce the build-up of fatty deposits, appear in both ground and instant coffee, which has also been shown to protect against liver cancer, Alzheimer’s and strokes. Last year, experts at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US, found three to five cups a day reduced the risk of dying from heart disease.

The British team’s findings, published in the journal Coronary Artery Disease, are potentially significant as heart attack patients are at high risk of further attacks or developing heart failure.

The team, which tracked 3,271 victims across the UK, including 604 who survived their attack but died as a result of their condition, said it is not yet clear how coffee helps the heart.