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Would Coffee Contribute To Hypertension?
 

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Nearly 2.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. In United States, over 50 percent of people aged above 18 drink coffee everyday. Statistics show that the average daily coffee consumption for Americans is 3.2 cups.

While coffee has been accused by many scientists for causing many disorders including cancer, gastrointestinal problems, anxiety and sleep changes, bad cholesterol and blood pressure to rise, its consumption does not seem to decline even though its price has been increased significantly.

Could coffee actually raise blood pressure? Hypertension (or more commonly known as high blood pressure) can link to heart disease, stroke and shorter life expectancy.

The caffeine in coffee is a mild to moderate stimulant that can cause nervousness and jitters. It could raise blood pressure, too. In general, 3 to 4 cups of coffee containing a moderate to high amount of caffeine could cause a healthy person’s systolic pressure to increase by up to 14 mm and diastolic pressure to rise up to 13 mm. For people who already have hypertension, the increase could be even higher.

It is understood that adenosine, the hormone responsible for widening arteries, is prevented by caffeine from functioning properly. Meanwhile, caffeine is believed to stimulate adrenal glands, which is responsible for pumping adrenaline throughout the body. This could cause the blood pressure to rise.

Nevertheless, caffeine has a short life span in the body. So the rise in blood pressure is usually temporary and should not contribute to hypertension. In fact, the hike in blood pressure does not even occur in people with a caffeine tolerance. Some cautious doctors, however, do advise their hypertensive patients to limit their coffee consumption to no more than 2 cups per day.

In a paper published in April 2011 in the ‘American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’, researchers from the Louisiana State University School of Public Health in New Orleans suggested that drinking several cups of coffee a day might not raise one’s blood pressure.

They pooled data from 6 previous studies that included a total of more than 170,000 people. The participants in each study were asked the number of cups of coffee they drank each day (from less than 1 to more than 5) and these participants were then followed for up to 33 years.

The findings showed that just more than 1 in 5 participants eventually developed high blood pressure. However, the likelihood of getting high blood pressure was indifferent between participants who drank more than 5 cups of coffee per day and those who drank very little. But researchers pointed out that their report did not imply there is no risk of drinking lots of coffee. In order to draw a firm conclusion, more data would be required.

Meanwhile, there were some findings that the researchers could not explain: people who drank between 1 and 3 cups of coffee per day had a slightly higher risk of high blood pressure than those who drank less.

Doubts on coffee seem never go away. While there might be other adverse effects to consuming large amounts of caffeine (coffee), there is no reason to believe drinking coffee can lead to high blood pressure, according to most doctors and health experts. This is because existing data does not indicate the existence of such risk.

There were past studies that denied the link between coffee and high blood pressure. For instance, a study, which was published in 1990 in ‘New England Journal of Medicine’, of more than 45,000 men found no link between coffee, caffeine and cardiovascular disease for those drinking 4 or more cups of coffee a day.

In reality, relationship between coffee and blood pressure is more complicated because of the possibility that it does not work the same way for everyone. People with a different genetic background might react to coffee differently. It can be safe for some people to drink a lot of coffee but it just not right for other people.

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