Making Healthy Choices™

Blood Pressure and Coffee Consumption

Coffee is one of the most popularly consumed beverages in the world. Any health effects, even if small, from drinking coffee could have large public health effects. One of the concerns of drinking coffee and caffeinated beverages is its effect on blood pressure. It’s been known for many years that even one cup of coffee increases the stress hormone epinephrine and causes blood pressure to rise, but it’s been thought to be only a temporary effect.

Two recent meta-analyses (combining several studies to analyze a specific problem) have looked at coffee and caffeine intake and have concluded that they do result in higher blood pressure. The rise is modest but significant. The author’s simple conclusion, “Regular caffeine intake increases blood pressure.”¹

Recently, a large prospective study also reported an association between coffee and caffeine and risk of developing high blood pressure that requires treatment with medication. The study was conducted in Finland on a large group of people (24,710) who all were not on medication for hypertension at the start of the study. After 13.2 years of follow-up, persons who drank 2-3 cups of coffee daily had a 29% increased risk of developing hypertension requiring medication compared to those who drank little or no coffee (0-1 cups/day). The 29% increased risk of developing hypertension was after adjusting for other possible confounders including: age, sex, education, physical activity, alcohol, tea, fruit and vegetable intake, bread consumption, smoking, and BMI.

When people who were already at high risk for cardiovascular disease (by having high cholesterol or diabetes) were eliminated from the study, the risk for high blood pressure from drinking coffee rose to 36% in those drinking 2-3 cups daily and 32% for those drinking 4-5 cups daily compared to no or a low intake.

The authors of the study concluded that “this study showed that coffee drinking seemed to increase the risk of antihypertensive drug treatment.”² The researchers are not sure why coffee increases the risk of developing high blood pressure but suggested that it may be related to the fact that coffee consumption increases several stress hormones, including epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. All of these stress hormones can cause blood pressure to be elevated.

While a 29% increased risk seems small, the researchers point out that it has public health importance because coffee is the most commonly consumed beverage in America (other than water) and because high blood pressure is one of our nation’s most common, chronic health problems (affecting 27% of all adults age 20 or older, and over half of all people age 50 and above).

Bottom line. If you are interested in preventing high blood pressure, you may want to limit coffee consumption to no more than 1 cup a day. In addition, keep physically active, keep weight in a healthy range, limit alcohol intake, eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables, and choose whole grain breads and cereals (aim for 4 servings daily).