Sleep, exercise and heart health: the impacts of coffee according to a new study
A published study suggests, pros and cons of coffee: a cup of coffee a day can make you move more, but it also makes you sleep less and can even increase the risk of suffering from heart palpitations.
The research authors recruited 100 healthy adults, who could drink as much coffee as they wanted for two days, then drink nothing for another two days, repeating the cycle over a period of two weeks.
On coffee drinking days, participants took an average of 1,058 more steps than on abstinence days. In contrast, sleep lasted 36 minutes less.
The study also suggests that coffee influences the dynamics of the heart. Those who drank more than one cup a day increased the incidence of premature ventricular contractions by 50% compared to days without coffee, which can weaken the heart or cause heart failure.
By collecting DNA samples, the researchers linked who had the greatest sleep reductions to a slower caffeine metabolism. On the other hand, those who metabolize faster had more palpitations.
In this sense, experts advise to do a self-analysis: if you start to feel anxious and shaky with a cup of coffee, you are a slow metabolizer. If you have a higher tolerance, you metabolize coffee faster.
