People who drink up to 25 cups of coffee a day don't run a greater risk of a heart attack.

That's the remarkable finding from a study of over 8,000 people in the U.K., carried out by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Previous studies have linked drinking coffee with a hardening of the arteries that pump blood from your heart to other parts of the body. If arteries become stiff, it can increase stress on the heart and raise a person's chance of having a heart attack or stroke.

But the fresh research, presented Monday at the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Conference, claimed that after looking at the heart scans of 8,412 people, it had "debunked" previous studies linking coffee to poor heart health.

For the study, coffee drinking was categorized into three groups: those who drink less than one cup a day, those who drink between one and three cups a day and those who drink more than three.

People who consumed more than 25 cups of coffee a day were excluded, but the BHP claimed that "no increased stiffening of arteries was associated with those who drank up to this high limit."

"This research will hopefully put some of the media reports in perspective, as it rules out one of the potential detrimental effects of coffee on our arteries," said Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation in a statement.

In 2018, the findings of a study of around half-a-million British adults claimed that coffee drinkers were found to have a slightly lower risk of death over a 10-year follow-up period than non-coffee drinkers.

Other studies have claimed substances in coffee might reduce inflammation and improve how the body uses insulin, which could decrease the likelihood of developing diabetes.