MILAN, Italy – A new study showed that coffee has a positive effect on physical activity: coffee lovers, on average, tend to walk 1000 extra steps a day. This might be one of the major reasons why coffee consumption has been associated with a longer life and a better health.
Coffee consumption: advantages and disadvantages
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and it shows also a downside when it comes to the consumption of hot cup of coffee: on average, people who regularly drink coffee lose about 36 minutes of sleep. The study also investigated the effect of coffee on heart palpitations.
The results show that drinking coffee, in fact, lead to premature ventricular contractions. However, they are common and not problematic for a healthy individual.
“The reality is that coffee is not all good or all bad — it has different effects,” reveals Gregory M. Marcus, an author of the study and a professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of California at San Francisco, to the Washington Post.
“In general, this study suggests that coffee consumption is almost certainly generally safe. But people should recognize that there are these real and measurable physiological effects that could — depending on the individual and their goals of care — be harmful or helpful. There is no one size fits all prescription or recommendation. It really depends on the individual.”
In fact, many studies have been somewhat conflicting. Early research show that coffee might be dangerous in the long run because it rises heart rate and cholesterol level. However, recent studies just came to the realization that drinking coffee actually decreases the risks of dying from a heart stroke.
Genetics seem to be important in foreseeing the effect of coffee on a specific individual: people who have slow metabolizers of coffee showed a greater reduction of sleep compared with fast metabolizers.
