Caffeine: How Does It Affect Blood Pressure?

Caffeine: How Does It Affect Blood Pressure?Many myths and prejudices are associated with coffee consumption; one of these is the ability of an aromatic beverage to raise or lower blood pressure. The fact that coffee invigorates and drives off drowsiness is known even to children (although this statement remains controversial). But how does caffeine affect the pressure – the main substance contained in brown grains? And is it necessary to give up a spicy drink to those who often have it off the top for acceptable performance?

Effect of coffee on hypotensive

What actually happens when drinking coffee – does this invigorating drink increase or decrease the pressure, without which some people cannot imagine the morning awakening? To get an accurate answer to this question, it is recommended to conduct a small experiment. For this you need:

Get up in the morning at your usual time and do your usual activities – but do not immediately measure the pressure, since after a night’s rest it will always be a little below the norm. Contrasting a soul or running in the park is also better to avoid during the experiment in order to get reliable results. The first measurement needs to be done 40-50 minutes after waking up, when the body and blood vessels also completely “wake up”.

After that, make coffee and drink one cup. It is advisable to use a natural drink, as instant coffee contains many additives – they can radically change the reaction of the body. Drinking more than one or two servings at once is also not worth it.

Not earlier than in a quarter of an hour, it is necessary to measure the pressure again and compare the result. For the purity of the experiment, you can measure several times during the day, especially if you have a habit of pampering yourself with a cup of hot coffee not only in the morning.
The results for each person will be different – this is the answer to the question. Much depends on how many people consume coffee, whether they have chronic heart disease and blood vessels, what lifestyle they have, profession, temperament, and a number of external and internal factors.

It was noted that with chronically low pressure, coffee can increase it a little – but only if the body is not used to coffee, and a person drinks it a day for no more than two servings. The pressure of a healthy person will remain unchanged, if a slight increase is noted, then the reasons should be sought, as a rule, not in coffee. Increased pressure sometimes even decreases, as coffee has a diuretic effect and dilates blood vessels.

Is coffee harmful to hypertensive patients?

Anyone who believes in such a myth and readily repeats it at every opportunity for the edification of coffee men should understand one simple fact: even if the vessels dilate, this does not mean that blood pressure rises. Another thing is that with the abuse of coffee, like almost every product, the reaction of the body can be very unexpected and not always positive. But all this is very individual, and even for the same healthy person, the pressure after a cup of strong espresso can be a little higher or lower – depending on the circumstances.

Picture Credit: Myriams-Fotos

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