London: Sipping a strong cup of hot coffee

not only helps clear the mind and perk up energy, but it could

be a lifesaver too, for a new study has revealed that caffeine

protects the heart.

An international team has found that drinking coffee

regularly could protect drinkers from irregular heart beats or

rhythms -- and the more cups they drink a day, the less likely

they are to suffer from the condition.

For the study, researchers, led by Dr Arthur Klatsky

of US pharmaceutical giant Kaiser Permanente, followed 130,054

men and women, aged 18 to 90, and found that those who drank

four or more cups of coffee each day had an 18 per cent lower

risk of hospitalization for heart rhythm disturbances.

Those who reported drinking one to three cups each day

had a seven per cent reduction in risk compared to abstainers.

"While the link didn`t automatically suggest that

coffee alone was responsible for the link, it did appear to

show coffee did no harm," Dr Klatsky said.

Dr Klatsky added: "Coffee drinking is related

to lower risk of hospitalisation for rhythm problems, but the

association does not prove cause and effect, or that coffee

has a protective effect.

"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."

The latest results, presented at the American Heart

Association`s Annual Conference in San Francisco, followed a

raft of other researches which showed coffee has a protective

effect on the heart.

A report from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain

showed that drinking three cups of coffee a day could reduce

the risk of women dying from heart disease by a quarter.

Another showed that men who drank five or more cups of

coffee were 44 per cent less likely to die from the disease.

Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day was also shown to

reduce the risk of a stroke by almost 20 per cent.

PTI