Coffee lowers stroke risk in women: Study

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LONDON: Drinking a cup or more of coffee each day may help women reduce their risk of stroke by as much as 25 percent.

Researchers from Sweden have discovered that not only could the consumption of at least one cup of coffee daily lower a woman's stroke risk, but also found that women who don't partake in a regular cup of coffee could actually be increasing their chances of stroke.

“Women showed that consumption of 1 to 5 cups of coffee per day was associated with a 22 to 25 percent lower risk of stroke, compared with consumption of less than 1 cup a day," according to lead researcher Susanna Larsson, of the National Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Larsson also noted that small amounts of coffee may also provide some benefit in the reduction of stroke risk.

For their analysis the researchers monitored the health of 34,670 women ranging in age from 49 to 83 for an average of 10 years. All of the women were participants in the Swedish Mammography Cohort, a long-term investigation of the association between diet, lifestyle and disease development.

During the period between 1998 and 2008, a total of 1,680 women suffered a stroke. However, the researchers found that those women who drank coffee were 22 percent to 25 percent less likely to have a stroke. The benefits seen were similar whether the women reported consuming 1-2 cups each day, 3-4 cups a day, or 5 or more cups daily in comparison to women who consumed less than a cup on a daily basis.

It must be noted that the women in the study were not asked to report whether or not they consumed decaffeinated coffee. However, Larsson pointed out that the majority of Swedes drink coffee containing caffeine.