Coffee intake and hypertension

Published: Friday, March 16, 2007

In women coffee abstinence is associated with a lower hypertension risk than is low coffee consumption. However, a high caffeine intake is also associated with a lower hypertension risk. In men no relation between coffee intake and blood pressure was found.

Cuno Uiterwaal and colleagues from the Julius Center, together with researchers from the National Institute of Public Health, describe these findings in the march issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The research was based on the Doetinchem Cohort Study from the National Institute of Public Health in which over 6300 people were followed over ten years.

The results lead to the question as to how a higher coffee intake would lead to a lower blood pressure. Perhaps, Uiterwaal hypothesizes, habitual coffee drinkers are adapted to caffeine and no longer show the blood pressure raising effect.

From a public health point of view, the conclusions don’t necessitate a policy change, Uiterwaal writes. “We consider it likely that the extent to which coffee intake explains hypertension risk is too small to be detected in relation to cardiovascular disease.”