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mahatmakanejeeves

(67,480 posts)
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 03:25 PM Sunday

Coffee may protect against irregular heartbeats

Source: NBC News

HEART HEALTH
Coffee may protect against irregular heartbeats

It’s long been unknown what effect, if any, caffeine has on atrial fibrillation, or A-fib.



Doctors often tell patients with A-fib to stop drinking caffeinated coffee.Boy_Anupong / Getty Images

Nov. 9, 2025, 9:45 AM EST
By Kaitlin Sullivan

Drinking caffeinated coffee is safe for people with atrial fibrillation and may help protect against recurrence of the disorder, a new study finds.

More than 10 million Americans live with atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, a common heart disorder that causes heart palpitations and can lead to heart failure, blood clots and stroke. Doctors have long tried to understand whether caffeine — which can increase heart rate and blood pressure — appears to trigger episodes that feel like a fluttering or thumping in the chest and cause dizziness or breathlessness.

“There is no standard advice for atrial fibrillation and caffeine,” said Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the DECAF (Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation?) study. “It is very common for me to encounter patients who have stopped drinking caffeinated coffee only because their physician has told them to do so because of their atrial fibrillation.”

The results of the DECAF study, a four-year clinical trial examining the effects of drinking coffee in people with a history of irregular heart rhythm that had either resolved or been treated, were presented Sunday at the annual American Heart Association conference in New Orleans and published in JAMA. Marcus is an associate editor of JAMA.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna242576

30 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Coffee may protect against irregular heartbeats (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Sunday OP
Drink coffee, I do every morning............... Lovie777 Sunday #1
Yes! Yes! Yes! wolfie001 Sunday #5
Me, too! And I have AFIB! rsdsharp Sunday #13
Fables about coffee. Jacson6 Sunday #2
Mormonism? wolfie001 Sunday #4
Mormons & coffee rustbeltvoice Sunday #19
I would research the research and find out... ananda Sunday #18
Coffee's like the Ever-Ready bunny wolfie001 Sunday #3
Whatever, DEcaffienated coffee helps/prevents HEARTBURN/acid reflux. elleng Sunday #6
Didn't help me hermetic Sunday #7
I cannot function without my coffee every day. I must be addicted... CTyankee Sunday #8
It sure doesn't work that way with mitral valve prolapse. LudwigPastorius Sunday #9
Caffeine is a stimulate known to increase the heart rate. lostincalifornia Sunday #24
LOL BWdem4life Sunday #10
like a lot of things, it's probably not the caffiene Skittles Sunday #15
cutting way back on caffeine helped my PACs. I never totally gave up coffee, just decaf or half caf joanbarnes Sunday #11
I had to look up PAC Skittles Sunday #16
I have it and Turbineguy Sunday #28
I have MVP Skittles Sunday #29
If true, this would be of no help to me. 3catwoman3 Sunday #12
In the last week I heard melatonan will kill you and sleeping on your doc03 Sunday #14
it's hard to keep up Skittles Sunday #17
Why just say coffee? SidneyR Sunday #20
Doc took me off coffee 30 years ago. piddyprints Sunday #21
Ehhh....not so much Bayard Sunday #22
It has been know for years that coffee can cause ectopic beats, and increases the heart rate and contractilty. If lostincalifornia Sunday #23
This girl who had a heart condition died from drinking a cafinated lemonade at Panera. lostincalifornia Sunday #25
I like the word "MAY". I have a coin that does the same think 50% of the time. lostincalifornia Sunday #26
They also had more heart attacks. progressoid Sunday #27
Yay!!!! FoxNewsSucks Sunday #30

wolfie001

(6,524 posts)
5. Yes! Yes! Yes!
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 03:35 PM
Sunday

The best part of waking up (without the fascist Folger's company part of course).

rustbeltvoice

(475 posts)
19. Mormons & coffee
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 04:55 PM
Sunday

Some Mormons maintain that a coffee drinker can not get to heaven. I have spent more than an half hour to find the book that quotes St. Paul. I thought, it was the Brothers Karamazov. It was something similar to, ‘Everything is permitted to you, but not everything is good for you’. There is something like that in I Corinthians vi.12. — All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. So, i have the ability to drink coffee; why would it be bad for me? The prohibition is to control behaviour, the authority is both nebulous and capricious. As for me and my tribe, we will drink coffee.

“ And again, hot drinks are not for the body or the belly.” — Joseph Smith, Word of Wisdom 89.9.

https://rustbeltvoice.blogspot.com/2023/07/coffee-eles-tem-muito-cafe-no-brasil.html

ananda

(33,991 posts)
18. I would research the research and find out...
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 04:45 PM
Sunday

who sponsored the study and whether there
are any ulterior motives or not.

wolfie001

(6,524 posts)
3. Coffee's like the Ever-Ready bunny
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 03:33 PM
Sunday

Always trying to pin it down as unhealthy yet it always comes shining through. I drink about 3-8oz cups per day and I'm never going to give it up. I don't care what my docs say to me about it.

hermetic

(9,066 posts)
7. Didn't help me
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 03:45 PM
Sunday

Been drinking it for over 50 years but still had to get a pacemaker a couple of months ago. Now my beat goes on but so does my morning brew.

LudwigPastorius

(13,810 posts)
9. It sure doesn't work that way with mitral valve prolapse.
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 03:49 PM
Sunday

For me, one cup of caffeinated joe and it feels like Elvin Jones is playing a drum solo on my solar plexus.

BWdem4life

(2,858 posts)
10. LOL
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 03:55 PM
Sunday

The only time I ever had my heart paddled back into rhythm was after drinking some alcoholic drinks with Red Bull in them. Pretty sure caffeine is not really good for the heart.

joanbarnes

(2,062 posts)
11. cutting way back on caffeine helped my PACs. I never totally gave up coffee, just decaf or half caf
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 03:57 PM
Sunday

Skittles

(168,652 posts)
16. I had to look up PAC
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 04:41 PM
Sunday
PAC stands for Premature Atrial Contraction, which is an extra heartbeat that occurs when the upper chambers of the heart (atria) contract earlier than normal. While often harmless, frequent PACs can sometimes indicate an underlying heart condition or lead to more serious arrhythmias.

just curious but when that happens does it FEEL like your heart is skipping a beat?

Turbineguy

(39,636 posts)
28. I have it and
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 09:11 PM
Sunday

it feels like the heart stops and just before you start to worry, you get a strong beat and then it goes back to normal. I've had it where the heart beats twice, skips, beats twice skips. etc. The Doctors tell me not to worry. I take Magnesium Glycinate 360mg per day, that seems to keep things pretty normal. Still, its disconcerting, but I figure 5 GP's and 2 Cardiologists can't be wrong. The Cardiologists tell me to limit my coffee and tea intake, but not to stop it. I have cut way down on the alcohol as well. Like one drink per month.

Skittles

(168,652 posts)
29. I have MVP
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 09:52 PM
Sunday

every once in a while it feels like my heart is skipping a beat but from what I understand it is actually an extra beat

I would never be able to give up coffee but alcohol, I imbibe only on special occasions

3catwoman3

(28,144 posts)
12. If true, this would be of no help to me.
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 04:06 PM
Sunday

I detest both the taste and the smell of coffee.

When I was a kid, for whatever reason, my father made dunk an oatmeal cookie in coffee and take a bite. He liked that, so I guess he was sure I would, too. I didn’t, and suspect that may be the reason I do not care for coffee anything.

doc03

(38,642 posts)
14. In the last week I heard melatonan will kill you and sleeping on your
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 04:36 PM
Sunday

side will kill you. Now coffee is good. Didn't RFK say to eat saturated fat now.

Skittles

(168,652 posts)
17. it's hard to keep up
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 04:43 PM
Sunday

but - certain things, I have to have.....I gave up cigs, I gave up most meat - but I have to have my coffee, it's one of the simple pleasures in my life; yes INDEED

piddyprints

(15,044 posts)
21. Doc took me off coffee 30 years ago.
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 08:19 PM
Sunday

But it was because of fatigue. I’m so sensitive to caffeine that a cup of decaf after noon has enough caffeine to keep me up all night.

All the heavy coffee drinkers in my family had serious heart diseases, but I wouldn’t say coffee was the culprit. They all had other risk factors. Two of them had A-fib that required cardioversion, clearly not helped by the coffee.

Yeah, I miss it, so I have a cup of decaf with Half & Half early in the day maybe once a month just for the taste.

Bayard

(27,794 posts)
22. Ehhh....not so much
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 08:31 PM
Sunday

I had a little bit of an irregular beat, causing some dizziness and racing heart. Cardiologist put me on a teensy dose of Metoprolol, and that seems to do the trick.

I drink a couple big mugs of regular coffee a day. Its in the daily required food/beverage groups. Even in the evening, and it doesn't keep me awake. I always sleep like the dead anyway.

lostincalifornia

(4,832 posts)
23. It has been know for years that coffee can cause ectopic beats, and increases the heart rate and contractilty. If
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 08:31 PM
Sunday

people who are prone to atrial fibrillation think that is a good thing, then have fun.

FoxNewsSucks

(11,454 posts)
30. Yay!!!!
Sun Nov 9, 2025, 09:57 PM
Sunday

Now let's see the study that finds bacon and eggs are also good for us.

Coffee.....bacon.....hash browns......eggs


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