Study finds coffee is OK for heart attack patients

A group of scientists from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil have found that people who have suffered from a heart attack do not need to limit their daily coffee intake. The results of the small trial, which was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, could challenge the perception that patients with heart disease who are at risk of arrhythmia should limit their caffeine intake. The study looked at 51 patients: 25 of whom were assigned to receive decaffeinated coffee with caffeine powder and 26 received decaffeinated coffee with placebo lactose powder. The patients drank the coffee at one-hour intervals over a five-hour period. No association was found between the ingestion of the caffeine and arrhythmic episodes, leading the authors of the study to conclude that there is no evidence to support the common recommendation to limit moderate caffeine consumption in patients at risk for arrhythmias.