Hypertension News:

No Significant Link Between Coffee Drinking and Hypertension

Drinking one cup of coffee a day may slightly raise your blood pressure, but long-term drinking of larger amounts of coffee does not appear to significantly increase the risk of hypertension, according to Johns Hopkins University Researchers.

The researchers reported in the March 25th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine on their study of the coffee-drinking habits of 1,017 white male former medical students of the university who were assessed several times over 33 years as part of the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study.

Acknowledging that a link between coffee drinking and increased blood pressure has been theorized for at least 60 years, the researchers said their effort carries weight because it is the first to look prospectively at the issue.

Although drinking one cup of coffee a day only slightly raised both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels, the researchers found that long-term coffee drinking did not substantially increase the participants' risk of developing hypertension.

"Non-drinkers were at lower risk of hypertension than coffee drinkers, but there was no progressive increase in risk associated with higher levels of coffee intake," the researchers concluded. Despite the small spikes in blood pressure, they noted that people seem to adapt quickly to the cardiovascular effects of coffee drinking.

Source: Hypertension Week of March 31, 2002