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Study examines coffee's impact on heart rhythm

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March 23, 2023

Consumption of caffeinated coffee did not result in increased episodes of premature atrial contractions, according to a study reported in the New England School of Medicine Wednesday, ABC News reported.

However, researchers also found evidence of premature ventricular contractions, a type of irregular heartbeat that comes from the lower heart chambers. Such beats are not usually serious, but are associated with a higher heart failure risk. More of these early beats were found on the days subjects drank coffee among persons who consumed two or more cups per day.

Persons with genetic variants that cause them to break down caffeine faster reported less of a sleep deficit, while those with variants that cause slower metabolization caffeine lost more sleep.

The study, funded by the University of California, San Francisco and the National Institutes of Health, examined caffeinated coffee effects on arrhythmias, cardiac ectopy, daily sleep minutes, daily step counts and serum glucose levels.

Researchers sent texts daily for two weeks to volunteers who were mostly younger than 40, instructing them to consume or avoid caffeinated coffee on certain days. One hundred adults were fitted with a wrist-worn accelerometer, a continuously recording electrocardiogram device and a continuous glucose monitor.