Coffee and Tachyarrhythmias: Where's the Evidence?

The notion that caffeine confers risk for cardiac arrhythmias is common and is included in multiple professional society guidelines. However, this hypothesis is based on an assumed biological mechanism and inadequate evidence from clinical research.

In this study, researchers prospectively followed almost 400,000 middle-aged people (age range, 40–69 at baseline) for 12 years. Coffee use was tracked by questionnaires; incident atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, premature atrial complexes, and premature ventricular complexes were determined from medical record reviews. After adjustment for demographics, medical conditions, educational level, smoking status, alcohol and tea consumption, a…