If you have an irregular heartbeat, otherwise known as atrial fibrillation, is it safe to drink coffee?

KOAT health expert Dr. Barry Ramo said that question came up at a recent meeting of American Heart Association researchers, who'd thought they'd try a test with two groups of 100 people with that condition -- one group drank a cup of coffee a day, and the other didn't.

"At the end of those six months, those who had the cup of coffee every day had a recurrence of about 50%, which is much lower than those abstaining from coffee , with two thirds of them who had a recurrence of their atrial fibrillation," Ramo said.

Why that was the case wasn't clear, but the small study at least suggested that coffee could be beneficial, or at least do no harm, Ramo said.

The doctor's advice? Go ahead,

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