A recent study, initiated by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in California, discovered that men and women who said they drink four or more cups of coffee per day possess an 18-per-cent reduced risk of being taken to hospital for irregular heartbeats or other heart rhythm disturbances.

The study involved 130,054 adults who were members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan and had filled out questionnaires about their coffee- and tea-drinking habits from 1979 to 1985.

Also, they revealed that the susceptibility of being hospitalized was 7 per cent lower for people who drank one to three cups of coffee daily.

And when looking at those study participants who both did and did not report symptoms or a history of heart and respiratory disease, four cups of coffee per day was still linked to fewer hospitalizations for rhythm problems.

''People who are moderate coffee drinkers can be reassured that they are not doing harm because of their coffee drinking'', said Arthur Klatsky, the study's lead investigator and a cardiologist at Kaiser's division of research.