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Hi! I'm Stelios Pantazis.
I'm a doctor and I specialize in
medical nutrition and metabolic disorders.
Today, I'd like to talk
about the relationship between coffee
and atrial fibrillation,
a heart rhythm disorder.
If you've been watching
this channel for a long time,
you've certainly heard me complain
that I can't stand coffee.
I'm one of the few unlucky people
to whom coffee causes great agitation,
so I can't even drink decaffeinated coffee.
In fact, I've thought that if there was
a drug that I'd take once a day in a tablet
that would allow me to drink coffee
without becoming agitated, I'd take it.
I'd take one pill every day
only to be able to drink coffee.
Despite any possible side-effects.
Unfortunately, I haven't discovered
such a pill yet.
If you have something to suggest,
write it in the comments,
because I may try it.
So this is why I'm a bit jealous
of people that drink coffee
and it doesn't bother them.
But this jealousy
does not become bitterness,
and when I see something good about
coffee, I always share it with you.
Many people believe that all things
that give us some pleasure
have a dark side too.
If there's one thing
that does not confirm this belief,
it's coffee.
No matter how much we've studied coffee,
we haven't found that it causes any damage.
Fortunately, this is confirmed once more
in the study I'm presenting today.
We've seen in previous videos that coffee
reduces the risk of some types of cancer,
the risk of diabetes, as well as
the risk of death of any cause.
The only thing that concerned us was
if coffee affects heart rhythm.
Even today, some cardiological societies
all over the world
recommend the avoidance of coffee
to people with heart rhythm disorders.
Moreover, you may have heard
from some cardiologists
that if you suffer from tachycardia
or feel fluttering in the chest,
you'd better avoid coffee.
It seems that a study published recently
supports exactly the opposite.
Namely, that drinking coffee protects
the heart from arrhythmia,
especially atrial fibrillation,
its most common form.
This study was based on data
from 400,000 people in Great Britain.
The design of the study was rather simple.
The many questions answered
by the participants in the study
included the question "How many
cups of coffee do you drink per day?"
They then monitored a database
to find out how many of the 400,000
suffered from atrial fibrillation
in the following five years.
The results showed that the more
coffee a person drank,
the lower the chances that they'd be
diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.
Even the persons that drank
five to six cups of coffee per day
were more protected compared to those
that drank four cups of coffee per day.
This is really good news
for people that drink coffee,
and I'm sure most of you drink coffee,
and that's good for you,
because it seems that studies
confirm again and again
that coffee is good for your health.
On the other hand, don't forget
that no matter how good this study was,
it's not ideal.
There are two reasons for that.
First, people that drink much coffee
may be protected from arrhythmia
for the same reason
they're so tolerant of caffeine.
Without going into technical details
and boring you,
I mean that people that metabolize
caffeine quickly
and can drink five to six
cups of coffee per day
may metabolize other toxic substances
equally quickly too,
and this may be the reason
they're protected from atrial fibrillation.
Second, this is a monitoring study,
which means that the participants
drink coffee voluntarily.
It's like carrying out a study to find out
if a drug reduces arrhythmia
and saying "Those that want to take
the drug will go to group A,
"while those that don't
will go to group B and take the placebo."
This would certainly cause problems
in the data analysis.
I don't want to confuse you,
but as a scientist, I have
to present the whole truth.
But I admit that after this study,
I feel really comfortable to recommend
and praise drinking coffee,
even to people suffering
from heart rhythm disorders,
which I've hesitated to do until now.
Therefore, if you drink coffee,
continue enjoying it.
The most reliable data we've had by now
on coffee are almost exclusively encouraging.
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Thank you very much!