New York, Feb 26 (IANS) Elderly people who consume caffeinated beverages regularly could be doing their heart a good turn. New research suggests that the higher the caffeine intake, the stronger the protection.
John Kassotis and other researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Centre and Brooklyn College in the US used data from the first federal National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study.
They found that survey participants 65 or more years old with higher caffeinated beverage intake exhibited lower relative risk of coronary vascular disease and heart mortality than did participants with lower caffeinated beverage intake, reported the health portal Science.
"The protection against death from heart disease in the elderly afforded by caffeine is likely due to caffeine's enhancement of blood pressure," the researchers said in the report published in the American Journal of Nutrition in its February 2007 issue.
The protective effect was also found to be dose-responsive: the higher the caffeine intake the stronger the protection. The protective effect was found only in participants who were not severely hypertensive. No significant protective effect was found in patients below the age of 65, the researchers said.
No protective effect was found against cerebrovascular disease mortality - death from stroke - regardless of age.