Save Share A large analysis looked at hundreds of factors that may influence the risk of heart failure and found one dietary factor in particular that was associated with a lower risk: drinking coffee. Heart failure, sometimes called congestive heart failure, occurs when the heart muscle becomes weakened and can no longer pump blood efficiently. It can be caused by high blood pressure, heart valve disease, heart attack, diabetes and other diseases and conditions. The analysis included extensive, decades-long data from three large health studies with 21,361 participants and used a method called machine learning that uses computers to find meaningful patterns in large amounts of data.