Your six-a-day coffee addiction might actually be good for you

Hey, you there. Yes, you. The one absentmindedly kicking the floor and rapidly turning your head at the slightest noise. This one’s for you.

How many coffees have you had today? Three? Four? Enough to visibly shake and sweat? Well, that might be a good thing.

Drinking a lot of coffee, as it turns out, might actually be good for anyone at risk of heart problems – despite what some medical studies have claimed.

Professor Peter Kistler, of the University of Melbourne in Australia, is the lead author on a new review of multiple studies which he argues dispels some common myths.

“Coffee certainly increases your resting heart rate, but it doesn’t cause an abnormal heartbeat,” he said, adding that those who regularly drink coffee could actually be *decreasing* their chances of developing arrhythmia (a heartbeat which is too slow, too fast or otherwise abnormal).

“If you look broadly, beyond heart rhythm problems, regular coffee drinkers are at lower risk of heart failure.

“There is some evidence they may live longer and have better moods with lower rates of depression and stroke.”

Read more: What your coffee order says about you

The study finds that up to six cups of coffee per day can be healthy, but – as 9News reports – three cups is often seen as a “sweet spot”.

The latest review follows a study last year from the University of Southampton, which found coffee drinkers were at a lower risk of dying from a stroke and at lower risk of multiple other conditions.

Healthy adults are recommended a maximum of 400mg of caffeine per day, yet six cups of the stuff would amount to 570mg – and that’s before you consider the caffeine content of anything else we consume over the course of a regular day.

Some canned energy drinks, for example, contain considerably more caffeine than a regular cup of coffee.

Still, as Kistler says, “Whichever way you look at it, coffee is a good thing.”

(Images: Unsplash/Getty)