Coffee not so dangerous

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34106, 19 March 1976, Page 13

Coffee not so dangerous

r.V.Z. Press assn— CopyrtgM) BOSTON (Massachusetts), March 18. Despite earlier finding’s to the contrary, men can drink coffee with little fear of heart disease. United States researchers say.

The doctors said in a report being published today that previous reports of links between coffee drinking and heart attacks were probably the result of inaccurate testing.

In those studies, they said, the researchers failed to take into consideration that their subjects’ heart trouble could have been caused by other factors, such as smoking.

The latest study, directed by Dr Charles Henneken. was reported in the “New England Journal of Medicine.” The risks, if any, of death from coronary heart disease associated with coffee drinking appeared to be small, it said. Other factors The doctors reviewed the habits of 649 men between the ages of 30 and 70 who died of heart disease. They took into consideration 22 factors that might be associated with heart trouble.

They found that the variables most associated with death from heart disease were a history of heart damage resulting from blockage of an arteryy a history of diabetes, cigarette smoking, a history of angina, a history of congestive heart failure, physical activity, weight, and a history of high blood pressure. Occupation, religion, coffee additives and tea additives — all of little importance when compared with other factors — were more frequently associated with heart attack than coffee drinking, the doctors said.