NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The medical journal Diabtes Care has reported a reassuring bulletin for coffee lovers with type 2 diabetes. The story says that even drinking large amounts of coffee in diabetic patients does not raise the risk of heart disease or early death. Background: Although studies in the general population have shown that coffee drinking is not harmful to the heart, there is not enough information about the effects of coffee on diabetics. However, studies have confirmed that coffee consumption can impair the ability of diabetics to use glucose. In an in-depth study, van Dam and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health followed 3,497 diabetic patients between 1986 and 2004. The subjects were free of heart and blood disease at the start of the study, and all completed questionnaires about their diet during the follow-up. The researchers found during the study that even drinking more than four cups of coffee a day did not effectively increase the risk of heart disease or accelerate death compared to patients who did not drink coffee. This finding held true regardless of how long the patients had had diabetes or whether they smoked. The researchers concluded, “Previously, it was thought that the habit of drinking caffeinated coffee in type 2 diabetics would increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death, but our study suggests that this hypothesis is not valid.”