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How Long Does Caffeine Affect Blood Pressure?

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Caffeine can cause a short, but dramatic increase in your blood pressure. There are some studies that found caffeine as blockage to hormones that keeps your arteries widened while others saw it as a cause for adrenaline increase causing blood pressure to increase.

Caffeine is a natural stimulant found in nuts, berries, cocoa and certain plants and is commonly consumed as coffee or other caffeinated beverages. It is the most common beverage that people around the world consumed. Researches link caffeine and heart disease to be a major factor affecting blood pressure that can even trigger cardiovascular conditions.

Caffeine as a stimulant

Caffeine is considered as a stimulant because it can increase the activity of your central nervous system that keeps you awake, alert and focus. But this increased activity could also trigger your blood vessels to constriction. With this, your blood pressure will increase and alter the blood supply of the heart. Expert says that this is the most dangerous effects of strong stimulant like cocaine and methamphetamine.

However, caffeine is a very mild stimulant and stays quickly in your body and it is a self-limiting stimulant as it acts on the kidneys increasing its excretion rate.

How long does caffeine affect blood pressure?

It has a finding that consuming caffeine has psychological effects and indicates an increase in blood pressure for a short time after consumption.

Some people found themselves to have higher blood pressure when they regularly consume caffeinated beverages than those non-drinker. Others developed tolerance to caffeine thus, it doesn’t have a long-term effect on blood pressure.

Caffeine-blood pressure relationship may be more complicated than expected. According to studies, the amount of caffeine consumed affected the risk of developing high blood pressure. It showed that the risk of high blood pressure was the lowest for those heavy caffeine takers and has the same risks as those non-drinkers. People who drank only small amount seemed to have the highest risk and is believed that over time, the body will develop tolerance in it.

Scientists came up with surprising result when they measured effect of caffeine on blood pressure and how it impacts the action of calcium channel blockers. These calcium channel blockers are used as medication to lower blood pressure. It is commonly given to patients suffering from hypertension. It include felodipine which can relax and widen blood vessels for easy flow of the blood thus, reducing blood pressure.

Though caffeine may increase your blood pressure right after your intake but it doesn’t extend far beyond the short term. If you already have a high blood pressure then, you’re a regular caffeine consumer, it is very unlikely for you to have a significant impact on your blood pressure or risk of heart disease.

With the current studies, there’s no strong proof yet that consumption of caffeine does not increase risk of high blood pressure or heart disease. There’s no relationship between caffeine and high blood pressure.

Some of the bioactive compound present in caffeine may offer health benefits such as reduced-oxidative stress and inflammation. As a common logic eating or drinking too much of everything can cause negative health effects. So, it is always important to maintain balance in your lifestyle.

If you have a high blood pressure, it is healthier if you will consult your doctor whether you should limit your caffeine intake or worse stop it. If your caffeine intake bothers you as you feel that it affects your blood pressure, try limiting your caffeine to 200 milligrams a day same as two 8-ounce cups of brewed coffee. Take note a swell that the amount of caffeine varies by brand and method of preparation.

It is also recommended, to avoid caffeine right before doing activities that may increase your blood pressure like exercising, or hard physical exercise. If caffeine is your main suspect of increased blood pressure, why not try checking it before drinking caffeinated beverages. If it increases by about five to ten points, your blood pressure may be related to caffeine.

Caffeine does increase blood pressure to those people who are not used to it and the hypertensive effect seem to person’s sensitivity to caffeine as well. Blood pressure is an important indication of heart attack and stroke. If caffeine doesn’t raise your blood pressure, does to cause heart disease too? Scientists found no link between caffeine consumption and stroke risk even in heavy drinkers. Though there are some who were annoyed by a feeling of rapid pulse but doesn’t seem to cause them serious heart problem.

As one of the widely cited result of a study, blood pressure rose slightly almost immediately after drinking caffeinated beverage and this rise commonly happened to people with pre-existing high blood pressure. But this increase is not very large and only lasted a short time. It is also indicated that 15 % of the people with existing high blood pressure, drinking caffeinated beverage could actually decrease in blood pressure. It was concluded that caffeine-induced blood pressure changes were small and short-lived and it does not contribute to blood vessels associated with high blood pressure or cardiovascular conditions.

Espresso Expert Member since November 3, 2018

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