Coffee Stores East Moline IL

Caffeine Roulette

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By Sarah Forbes

No one really knows why people react so differently to caffeine. One person’s standard every-morning double latte is another person’s anxiety freak-out. Over the years, we’ve heard any number of conflicting reports on caffeine and its impact on our health, especially our hearts. To puzzle out the right answers, you’d probably need a whole pot of coffee just to stay awake.

A new study sheds some light on why all this research has produced such differing results. Earlier studies identified the gene that causes us to metabolize caffeine well and a variant of the same gene that doesn’t do as good a job. The version you have determines how fast your body can process the caffeine you consume. Researchers from the University of Toronto asked some 4,000 people in Costa Rica (half of whom had suffered a nonfatal heart attack) to fill out a food frequency questionnaire. Genetic testing revealed 55 percent of them to be “slow coffee metabolizers.” Of this subgroup, those who drank around two or three cuppa joes a day were 36 percent more likely to have a nonfatal heart attack than those who didn’t drink coffee.

The crazy part? The same amount of caffeine can actually be good for the hearts of those with the fast metabolizing gene. Unfortunately, you can’t know for sure to which group you belong without genetic testing. In the meantime, it’s probably best to ensure your heart’s health by keeping consumption of caffeinated items to a minimum.

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