Coffee has a bad reputation when it comes to heart health, but Dr. Jimmy Mohamed, a general practitioner interviewed on RTL in early March 2026, calls that reputation a myth. According to him and the studies he references, coffee is not only safe for the heart — it may actually protect against cardiac arrhythmias. Here's what the science says, and what really happens when you combine high coffee consumption with stress.
The idea that coffee damages the heart has circulated for decades. People cut back on espresso after a palpitation scare, doctors warn sensitive patients to reduce their intake, and the drink has accumulated a kind of guilty reputation. But that picture, according to Dr. Mohamed, is largely wrong.
Coffee and heart health: the urban legend that needs to die
The core claim Dr. Mohamed made on RTL is blunt: coffee is "a very good drink for the heart." Not neutral. Not acceptable in moderation. Actively beneficial. That framing alone challenges what most people believe about caffeine and cardiovascular risk.
No link between coffee and high blood pressure
One of the most persistent fears around coffee is that it raises blood pressure chronically. Dr. Mohamed addresses this directly: regular coffee consumption does not cause long-term hypertension. The short-term spike some people notice after a strong espresso is real, but the body adapts. Over time, habitual coffee drinkers do not show elevated baseline blood pressure compared to non-drinkers. The cardiovascular system adjusts.
Coffee may actually reduce arrhythmia risk
This is where the evidence becomes genuinely surprising. Not only does coffee fail to trigger cardiac arrhythmias, it appears to reduce the risk of developing them. Dr. Mohamed cited a study involving 200 patients split into 2 groups, one of which continued drinking coffee while the other did not. The group that kept drinking coffee showed a 40% reduction in arrhythmia risk. The specific study references were not provided during the interview, which is worth noting as a limit on full verification, but the direction of the finding aligns with a growing body of research pointing in the same direction.
According to Dr. Jimmy Mohamed, coffee does not cause cardiac arrhythmias and does not raise blood pressure long-term. A cited study found a 40% lower arrhythmia risk in patients who continued drinking coffee.
What stress and sleep deprivation actually do to your heart
Here's where the picture gets more nuanced. Dr. Mohamed does not give coffee a blanket pass in every situation. When you combine high coffee intake with chronic stress and sleep debt, something specific happens: tachycardia, meaning the heart beats faster than normal.
This is not the same as arrhythmia. Tachycardia is a rapid heart rate — uncomfortable, sometimes alarming, but mechanically different from the irregular electrical firing that defines arrhythmia. Many people confuse the two, which is part of why coffee gets blamed for heart problems it doesn't actually cause.
The stress-and-coffee combination creates a stimulant overlap. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, already accelerates heart rate. Caffeine adds another layer of stimulation. Stack a sleep deficit on top of that, and the cardiovascular system is running hot. But "running hot" is not the same as "breaking down." The heart beats fast. It does not beat irregularly.
reduction in cardiac arrhythmia risk observed in the group that continued drinking coffee, according to the study cited by Dr. Mohamed
The safe daily caffeine dose, according to European health authorities
The EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) sets the threshold clearly: 200 mg of caffeine per day is considered safe for healthy adults. That number gives a practical benchmark for anyone trying to assess their own consumption.
A standard espresso contains between 80 and 100 mg of caffeine. That means two espressos per day sits right at the EFSA limit. A third pushes past it. Filter coffee, depending on strength and volume, can vary significantly, so the math isn't always straightforward — but the principle is simple enough.
The EFSA recommends staying under 200 mg of caffeine per day for healthy adults. One espresso contains roughly 80 to 100 mg, meaning two cups per day is the practical upper boundary.
What Dr. Mohamed's position implies, without stating it outright, is that stopping coffee out of fear of arrhythmia is not only unnecessary — it may deprive you of a genuine protective effect. The recommendation is not to drink as much as possible, but to stop treating coffee as a cardiac threat when the evidence points the other way. Understanding how food and drink interact with the body in real, measurable ways matters — much like knowing exactly how much sugar you can remove from a baked recipe without affecting the result: precision beats assumption.
The broader takeaway is about how popular health beliefs calcify into received wisdom long after the evidence has moved on. Coffee's cardiac reputation is a case study in that dynamic. The science, as Dr. Mohamed summarizes it, does not support the fear. And unlike some dietary questions where the data remains genuinely contested, the direction here is consistent: moderate coffee consumption, within the 200 mg/day ceiling set by European health authorities, carries no elevated cardiovascular risk — and may actively lower the odds of one of the most common heart rhythm disorders.
