Coffee May Enhance Cognition and Reduce Inflammation in Atrial Fibrillation

Key Findings

Cognitive Performance:

• Results indicated that patients who consumed lesser than one cup of coffee were associated with a cognitive construct score of −0.24 (95% CI, −0.27 to −0.16).

• Those who consumed more than five cups per day scored −0.10 (95% CI, −0.10 to 0.04; p=0.048).

• MoCA score was 24.58 (95% CI, 24.58–25.32) for the reference group (<1 cup/day) and 25.25 (95% CI, 24.98–26.85; p=0.163) for the highest consumption group.

Inflammatory Markers:

• Hs-CRP levels were lower with increased coffee consumption, with a factor of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.54–1.13; p=0.188) for the group consuming five or more cups compared to the reference group.

• IL-6 levels were significantly lower by a factor of 0.73 (95% CI, 0.57–0.95; p=0.017) in the highest coffee consumption group.

This study may suggest an association between habitual coffee consumption, improvement in cognitive performance, and reduction in inflammation among older patients with atrial fibrillation. Further studies are essential to confirm the above conclusions and provide recommendations on incorporating coffee into the counseling approach for dietary management of AF.

Reference:

Barbagallo, M., Springer, A., Vanetta, C., Allemann, M., Lee, P., Saeedi, S., Aeschbacher, S., Luciani, M., Bonati, L. H., Moschovitis, G., Scheu, V., Rutishauser, J., Kobza, R., Di Valentino, M., Meyre, P. B., Rodondi, N., Conen, D., Kühne, M., Osswald, S., … the Swiss-AF investigators. (2024). Coffee consumption correlates with better cognitive performance in patients with a high incidence for stroke. Journal of the American Heart Association. https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.124.034365