Coffee and Your Heart: 6 Things You Should Know

Coffee, long considered a vice, now is widely believed to offer health benefits, including lowering the risk of heart disease.

Consuming caffeine equivalent to four cups of coffee protects cardiovascular cells from damage by promoting the movement of a regulatory protein into mitochondria, according to a study published in June in the PLOS Biology.

The research, by scientists Heinrich-Heine-University and the IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Germany, sheds new light on the health benefits of coffee, Medical News Today noted.

Here are 6 things you should know about coffee and your heart.

1. Protein in the Powerhouse — A protein called p27 is key to coffee's heart benefit. According to the German study, caffeine causes p27 to move into mitochondria, where it helps trigger the repair of heart muscle, Medical News Today noted.

2. Four Cups — The optimum dose of caffeine was determined to be the equivalent to four cups of coffee, Forbes reported, noting that other studies have backed up that claim.

3. Pouring on Benefits — Each additional cup of coffee drank in a week can reduce the risk of heart failure by 7 percent and stroke by 8 percent, according to a report released in November by the American Heart Association, which examined data from the Framingham Heart Study, the Cardiovascular Heart Study and the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities Study.

4. Clear Arteries — Drinking more than three cups of coffee a day could lower the risk of clogged arteries, a Brazlian study suggested in March, according to HealthDay. Researchers in that study previously found that the steamy beverage was moderately beneficial in controlling other risk factors such as blood pressure and homocysteine levels.

5. Long Live Coffee — Drinking up to six cups of coffee a day has been linked to lower mortality, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012. This included deaths due to heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections.

6. The Big Picture — Drinking coffee can be part of a healthy lifestyle, but it isn't a shortcut, Judith Haendeler, a researcher involved with the German study, told Scientific American.

"If you hear about this study and decide to drink coffee but you do nothing else—no exercise, no proper diet—then, of course, this will not work," she said.

• Green Coffee Extract Benefits for Heart Health: Can Chlorogenic Acids Help Reduce Blood Pressure?
• 7 Trending Heart-Healthy Foods