Key takeaways:
Caffeine in coffee or tea will temporarily raise your blood pressure. But it doesn’t seem to have negative long-term consequences.
Regularly drinking coffee or tea actually has several health benefits. Caffeinated coffee lowers your risk of developing coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, and abnormal heart rhythms.
Moderation is key. If you’re concerned about how caffeine is affecting your blood pressure, it’s important to take steps to lower it.
Coffee and tea are very popular drinks. And for good reason. Beyond their pleasant taste, both can benefit your health in a variety of ways. Some of these health benefits are related to the caffeine naturally found in coffee and some teas.
But you may be wondering if caffeine has some downsides. This is an especially relevant question if you have hypertension (high blood pressure) or heart disease. After all, caffeine does temporarily raise your blood pressure.
Let’s take a closer look at how coffee affects your blood pressure over the long term.
Can coffee raise blood pressure?
Yes, the caffeine in coffee or tea can raise your blood pressure a bit in the short term. But it doesn’t seem to have harmful long-term effects. The temporary increase in blood pressure is even less if you regularly drink caffeinated coffee.
That said, some people are more likely to feel jittery or their heart beating fast after drinking coffee. This is partly due to genes and how your body responds to coffee or caffeine.
How does caffeine affect blood pressure?
Caffeine is a stimulant. That’s why coffee and tea make you feel more alert or awake. Caffeine fires up your nerves, constricts (tightens) your blood vessels, and gets your heart pumping a little faster. These are short-lived effects. But, for a few hours after you finish a caffeinated drink, your blood pressure will be a bit higher than normal.
How long does caffeine raise blood pressure for?
As soon as 30 minutes after drinking coffee, the caffeine in it may slightly raise your blood pressure. If you don’t regularly drink caffeinated coffee, your systolic blood pressure (top number) may rise 5 to 10 points. This effect can last for several hours before going away on its own.
While that might sound like a big increase, it’s nothing to worry about. One or two cups of coffee or tea in the morning doesn’t cause any long-term problems with blood pressure or raise your risk for developing high blood pressure. In fact, regularly drinking these beverages in moderation has some health benefits. And it’s considered safe — even in people with heart disease.
Does coffee have health benefits for the heart?
Yes, coffee may actually have some heart health benefits. Beyond caffeine, coffee contains hundreds of other compounds, including antioxidants, that can boost your health and even increase your lifespan.
The benefits of drinking coffee include:
Improved mood and lower rates of depression (a risk factor for heart disease)
Just remember: How you prepare your coffee or tea is important. Adding sugar or other sweetener and cream may counteract some of these benefits.
How much is too much caffeine?
The FDA recommends consuming no more than 400 mg of caffeine, which is about 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day. Exactly how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee depends on different factors, like the size of the cup and the strength of the brew.
One study looked at a large number of coffee drinkers (over 8,000) and didn’t find that heavy coffee drinking (over 3 cups per day) raised the risk of high blood pressure or stiffening of the arteries.
Is caffeine bad for me if I have hypertension?
You may wonder if it’s safe to consume caffeine if you have high blood pressure. Having 1 to 2 cups (8 oz to 16 oz) of coffee or tea a day is usually considered safe, even if you have high blood pressure. But it’s best to check in with a healthcare professional to be sure.
If they recommend that you regularly monitor your blood pressure at home, make sure to take any readings before you have coffee or 6 hours after your last sip. This way, you can log your normal blood pressure and not a post-caffeine spike.
Likewise, at every appointment, let your healthcare team know when you last consumed caffeine. Remember that caffeine isn’t just in coffee and tea. Caffeine is in lots of products, including energy drinks and foods infused with caffeine.
Will avoiding caffeine lower my blood pressure?
Avoiding caffeine won’t greatly affect your blood pressure long term. But other diet and lifestyle changes can help lower your blood pressure, like:
Choosing black coffee over sweet, milky coffee
Lowering how much salt is in your diet
Limiting how much alcohol you drink
What can I do if I’m concerned about how caffeine is affecting my blood pressure?
If you’re at all concerned about how your caffeine habit may be affecting your heart, here are a few things you can do to help ease your mind:
Check your blood pressure at home. At-home blood pressure monitors are relatively inexpensive and last for years. With the push of a button, you’ll get a reading in about a minute or less. For most healthy adults, a blood pressure of under 120/80 mmHg is considered “normal.” If you get readings that are higher than that, be sure to talk with a healthcare professional.
Switch to half-caff coffee or green tea. Both half-caff coffee and green tea tend to have less caffeine per serving than regular coffee, black teas, and yerba mate tea. These alternatives cause minimal changes to your blood pressure and still provide health benefits.
Take a caffeine holiday. If you find that you just can’t do without caffeine on work days, you can always take a break on the weekends or your days off to reset your blood pressure to its natural, caffeine-free rate. It usually takes less than 10 hours to get caffeine out of your system.
Talk to a healthcare professional. If you’re truly concerned that caffeine may be having a bad effect on your health, talk to your primary care provider. They’ll be able to make recommendations based on your health status and medical history.
Quiz: Am I at risk for high blood pressure?
Frequently asked questions
Drinking tea, including green tea and black tea, may have some beneficial effects on heart health and may help lower blood pressure. This likely has to do with how tea relaxes blood vessels and helps bring down inflammation. Scientists don’t yet fully understand what type of tea is the most beneficial or how much is needed to get the benefits. But, in general, tea is a safe, positive addition to a heart-healthy diet (without added sugar, of course).
Usually, your blood pressure will go up a little bit after you drink a cup of coffee. But if you regularly drink a moderate amount of coffee, you probably won’t notice much of a difference. Over time, moderate coffee drinkers may actually have lower blood pressure than people who don’t drink coffee. This was according to a study that asked people to self-report their coffee-drinking habits. This certainly doesn’t mean that coffee causes lower blood pressure over the long term. More quality research is needed before scientists can say for sure how coffee affects your blood pressure over time.
Probably not. Drinking moderate amounts of coffee doesn’t increase your blood pressure. So quitting probably won’t lower it either.
But it can depend on how much coffee (and caffeine) you’ve been consuming and your overall health. One study found that people who regularly drank more than 400 mg to 600 mg of caffeine (that’s about 4 to 6 cups of coffee) a day had a higher chance of an increased heart rate and blood pressure.
It’s possible that your blood pressure may go down if you reduce or stop drinking that much caffeine. But keep in mind that many things affect your blood pressure, and your coffee consumption is just one factor.
Possibly. Caffeine is one of hundreds of compounds in coffee. And scientists are still learning about how these different compounds affect your heart and blood pressure. While decaffeinated coffee has some heart-health benefits, it doesn’t seem to be as beneficial for your overall health as regular coffee.
A small study found that people who didn’t usually drink caffeine saw a temporary rise in their blood pressure after drinking a decaf latte. But habitual coffee drinkers who consumed the decaf latte didn’t experience a rise in blood pressure.
Drinking tea, including green tea and black tea, may have some beneficial effects on heart health and may help lower blood pressure. This likely has to do with how tea relaxes blood vessels and helps bring down inflammation. Scientists don’t yet fully understand what type of tea is the most beneficial or how much is needed to get the benefits. But, in general, tea is a safe, positive addition to a heart-healthy diet (without added sugar, of course).
Usually, your blood pressure will go up a little bit after you drink a cup of coffee. But if you regularly drink a moderate amount of coffee, you probably won’t notice much of a difference. Over time, moderate coffee drinkers may actually have lower blood pressure than people who don’t drink coffee. This was according to a study that asked people to self-report their coffee-drinking habits. This certainly doesn’t mean that coffee causes lower blood pressure over the long term. More quality research is needed before scientists can say for sure how coffee affects your blood pressure over time.
Probably not. Drinking moderate amounts of coffee doesn’t increase your blood pressure. So quitting probably won’t lower it either.
But it can depend on how much coffee (and caffeine) you’ve been consuming and your overall health. One study found that people who regularly drank more than 400 mg to 600 mg of caffeine (that’s about 4 to 6 cups of coffee) a day had a higher chance of an increased heart rate and blood pressure.
It’s possible that your blood pressure may go down if you reduce or stop drinking that much caffeine. But keep in mind that many things affect your blood pressure, and your coffee consumption is just one factor.
Possibly. Caffeine is one of hundreds of compounds in coffee. And scientists are still learning about how these different compounds affect your heart and blood pressure. While decaffeinated coffee has some heart-health benefits, it doesn’t seem to be as beneficial for your overall health as regular coffee.
A small study found that people who didn’t usually drink caffeine saw a temporary rise in their blood pressure after drinking a decaf latte. But habitual coffee drinkers who consumed the decaf latte didn’t experience a rise in blood pressure.
The bottom line
Without added sugar or cream, a couple of cups of your favorite caffeinated beverage won’t do long-lasting harm to your blood pressure. On the contrary, regularly drinking a moderate amount of coffee or tea may provide some health benefits. If you have high blood pressure, talk with your healthcare team about what you need to do to protect your heart. While you probably won’t have to give up coffee, you may want to make other diet and lifestyle changes to help lower your blood pressure.
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References
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