Coffee Health Coffee has heart benefits for postmenopausal women

A 15-year study published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that postmenopausal women who drank at least one to three cups of coffee a day had a lower risk of death from heart disease or other non-cancer inflammatory diseases.

The study was based on data from 27312 postmenopausal women who participated in the Iowa Women's Health study, which began in 1986 when participants were between 55 and 69 years old. and has not been diagnosed with heart disease, diabetes or cancer (except skin cancer).

Researchers from the Department of Nutrition at the University of Oslo in Norway asked the women to complete a 127-question questionnaire about daily coffee consumption, smoking and drinking, as well as other health habits (including diet and exercise). No women were asked to drink more or less coffee or change any habits in their lives as a result of the study.

The women were followed for 15 years, during which 1411 participants died of heart disease, 1733 died of cancer and 1211 died of other diseases. The results showed that women who drank one to three cups of coffee a day were 24 percent less likely to die from heart disease and 28 percent less likely to die from other non-cancer inflammatory diseases than those who did not drink coffee. But there was no link between cancer mortality and coffee drinking.

Overall, the results of the study were consistent with drinking one to three cups of coffee a day for the overall mortality of postmenopausal women and those caused by cardiovascular or other inflammatory diseases, the researchers said.