Drinking two or more cups of coffee per day appears to reduce the risk for stroke among women, according to US and Spanish researchers.

 

The finding stems from tracking of both coffee habits and stroke occurrence among 83,000 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study between 1980 and 2004. They had no history of stroke, heart disease, diabetes or cancer at the beginning of the study.

 

During the 24-year study, 2,280 of the women suffered strokes. After considering factors such as cigarette and alcohol use, the researchers found that healthy women who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had, on average, a 19 percent lower risk for any kind of stroke compared to women who drank less than one cup a month. Furthermore, drinking four or more cups a day lowered risk by 20 percent.

 

The researchers could not give a clear explanation for the findings. The finding “supports the hypothesis that components in coffee other than caffeine may be responsible for the potential beneficial effect of coffee on stroke risk. Antioxidants in coffee lower inflammation and improve blood vessel function,” Esther Lopez-Garcia, lead author of the study and assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain, said.

 

However, the researchers cautioned that the protective effect of coffee is only found in those who are relatively healthy. So, if you already have problems with your blood pressure or any other heart disease, you’d better avoid coffee.

 

The study was the work of experts at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain and researchers from the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. It was published in the journal Circulation.