If you can’t live without a cup of coffee, you’ll find this news very satisfying.
According to research from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora (USA), coffee intake has been associated with a lower risk of heart failure.
coffee
has been associated with a lower risk of
heart failure
and stroke. The results of the study have been presented at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) in Anaheim, California.
The experts used machine learning along with traditional data analysis techniques to discover an inverse relationship between the amount of coffee we drink per week and how we are exposed to the risk of heart failure and stroke with the data obtained in the Framingham Heart Study, operational since 1948, providing crucial information on cardiovascular health.
Machine learning can make predictions based on data associations, and is being increasingly used in health-related research in recent years. This is so, in part, because it allows researchers to perform data mining (the process of identifying patterns based on large amounts of data) much more efficiently.
Following machine learning data analysis the researchers found that an extra cup of coffee each week was associated with a 7% lower risk of heart failure and an 8% lower risk of stroke.
In addition, the scientists performed traditional data analyses (Cox proportional hazards) on information obtained from two other large population-based studies: the Cardiovascular Health Study and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. They found exactly the same association between coffee consumption and lower risk of heart failure and stroke, confirming the initial machine learning results.
Although the findings were consistent, the authors comment that the association is not necessarily causal, so we should not draw any firm conclusionsat this time.
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The researchers also found a correlation between the amount of red meat we include in our diets.
red meat
we include in our diets
diets
and the risk of stroke and heart failure. In this case, red meat consumption was identified as a potential risk factor, although here, the association was less striking.
In the same way, they designed a predictive risk model targeting congestive heart failure and stroke, based on known risk factors obtained with the Framingham risk score, to which they also added the correlation revealed between coffee consumption and cardiovascular health.
“Our findings suggest that machine learning could help us identify additional factors to improve existing risk assessment models. The risk assessment tools we currently use to predict whether someone might develop heart disease, particularly heart failure or stroke, are very good but not 100%,” explains study co-author Laura Stevens.
Reference: Drinking coffee may be associated with reduced risk of heart failure and stroke. American Heart Association’s (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2017, in Anaheim, California (USA). Presentation M2040 – Session: LB.APS.07