A new study shows that drinking coffee in moderation can actually help prevent serious problems and hospitalization caused by irregular heart beat.

One of the researchers of this study has reported that people who drink 4 or more cups of coffee each day had nearly an 18 percent less chance of being hospitalized from problems stemming from heart rhythm problems.

The details of the study were released in San Francisco at the American Heart Association’s 50th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention on March 5, 2010.

According to Kaiser Permanente, which did the research, although it has been established that very large doses of caffeine can lead to rhythm problems, there has been little research about the amount of coffee people drink.

A previous study in Denmark showed no difference in atrial fibrillation between people who were heavy coffee drinkers with those who were light drinkers.

But this study by Kaiser Permanente shows that when looking at a large group of people, the heavy coffee drinkers were least likely to end up in the hospital from heart rhythm problems.

The results of the study seem to go against common advice for people who experience heart palpitations. Usually doctors recommend patients such as this actually decrease their coffee intake because it is believed that the caffeine actually increases the irregular heart rhythms.

“However, these data might be reassuring to people who drink moderate amounts of coffee that their habit is not likely to cause a major rhythm disturbance,” said study researcher Arthur L. Klatsky, MD, senior consultant in cardiology at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California on the health care company's website.

The study does not provide enough evidence to actually say that people should drink caffeine, or coffee to prevent these heart problems, he clarified, but it does show that people who have rhythm problems do not necessarily need to stop drinking coffee.

The study was done on 130,000 recipients of Kaiser Permanente health insurance. It looked at data during routine physicals from 1978 to 1985 that patients provided regarding their coffee, alcohol and smoking habits. Klatsky said that the group of people was actually studied until 2008.

The results of the study showed that people with irregular heartbeats who drank at least four cups a day had an 18 percent less chance of ending up in the hospital for heart rhythm issues.

Those who drank up to 3 cups a day saw a 7 percent reduced risk.
The study did not determine a reason as to why drinking more coffee actually reduces this risk.

A doctor who reviewed the findings for the WebMD website said the results seem to reflect what heart specialists have seen with their own patients.

Sumeet S. Chugh, MD, associate director of the Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles told WebMD that the study reaffirms that doctors don’t think coffee actually generates arrthymias (irregular heartbeat).

However, he said, if you already have arrthymia, the study doesn’t show how coffee will affect you, so the best idea is to cut back on your caffeine and see if it goes away.