Joe Yates
A study has found that drinking an excessive amount of coffee per a day isn't actually as harmful as you would imagine.
Personally, like millions of others I can imagine, I enjoy one coffee a day which I have in the morning either on the commute to work in a flask or with my breakfast.
Two scoops of instant coffee and about a third of the mug full of semi-skimmed milk, topped up with boiling water and stirred well - perfection.
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It works for me but I'm aware of people who enjoy coffee consistently throughout the day - and even sometimes in the evening - which seems bizarre to me, but each to their own I guess.
But I'm pretty sure we've all wondered how bad it is for our health when we consume coffee on a daily basis.
Well, research carried out by Professor Steffen Petersen and his students at Queen Mary University in London, has discovered that consuming more than 20 cups of coffee a day isn't actually as bad as one would assume, with it being found to not be associated with having stiffer arteries.
In fact, they found that there is a maximum amount of coffee you can drink per day without harming your arteries.uNy are But why are we talking about arteries?
Well, they carry blood containing nutrients, and of course oxygen, from your heart and pumps it round your entire body.
If they stiffen then it can increase the chance of suffering a heart attack or having a stroke as it becomes tougher to push the blood through your body.
The study examined 8,412 people who each underwent an MRI scan and infrared pulse wave tests, and it debunked studies that claimed drinking coffee stiffens arteries - with researchers claiming previous findings were due to their being fewer participants.
The group was broken down into three categories - those who drink less than a cup a day, those who drink between one and three cups a day and those who drink more than three.
Shockingly there were people who drank more than 25 cups of coffee a day, however those people were excluded from the study - although there was no increased stiffness in their arteries compared to those who drank less than a cup a day.
Of all the participants the research discovered that those who consumed large quantities of coffee were most likely men who smoke and drink alcohol regularly.
Professor Metin Avkiran, an associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said per the UK based charity: “Understanding the impact that coffee has on our heart and circulatory system is something that researchers and the media have had brewing for some time.
“There are several conflicting studies saying different things about coffee, and it can be difficult to filter what we should believe and what we shouldn’t.
"This research will hopefully put some of the media reports in perspective, as it rules out one of the potential detrimental effects of coffee on our arteries.”