When asked how you get through the work-week, many people say caffeine is their saving grace. But how much is too much, and what long term effects can it have on your health?
We sat down with a Cardiologist who is also known to love his morning coffee.
He tells us that there was a study published this year to see if coffee stiffens the arteries in your heart. The study, that looked at people drinking anywhere from one to 25 cups a day, ultimately said there isn’t much of an effect.
But Sanford Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Nayan Desai says they failed to look at other effects.
If you are drinking more than a few cups of coffee, he says it can cause a fast or racing heartbeat. He says caffeine causes the same problems as any stimulant when it comes to the heart.
Another study says more than two cups of coffee can cause migraines. But caffeine doesn’t affect one age group more than another.
Dr. Desai explains, “Just doing a questionnaire method and asking people to guesstimate how much coffee they are drinking I don’t think is a good way…It’s not like smoking and lung cancer where we know exactly that it’s bad not only for the lungs but for the entire body. With caffeine, we don’t have that form of an answer yet.”
Ultimately, a couple of cups a day is okay, but if you start experiencing migraines or a fast heartbeat, it might be time to cut back or eliminate caffeine from your diet.