Coffee is popular and loved all over the world. It is already difficult for the majority of the civilized population of the Earth to imagine their morning without a morning cup of this drink. Both natural and artificial coffee are sold out in tens and hundreds of tons every day.
However, with all its love for coffee, humanity has long been exploring its effect on the body / And it is both positive and negative. One of the areas of influence of coffee, and in fact the most significant of them, is blood pressure.
Effect on blood pressure indicators
Blood pressure in the body depends on many factors, and coffee affects most of them directly. The main active substance in coffee is caffeine, found both in natural grain products and in freeze-dried ones. The only exception is a variety of coffee substitutes that imitate the taste of the drink, but do not contain the active substance.
Caffeine has the effect of an energy drink on the body. The drink needs some time after entering the gastrointestinal tract, after which it is absorbed into the blood, like most of the substances that we take in food. Through the bloodstream, caffeine excites the nervous system and causes vasospasm.
For a person, spasms of such strength are not critical (if you follow the norm for drinking the drink), but narrowed blood vessels lead to changes in blood pressure. This gives a person a feeling of vigor and eliminates drowsiness - exactly the sensations for which they drink coffee.
Changes in blood pressure cause the heart to speed up and work harder. A person who rarely drinks coffee or has overdose of the drink will immediately feel it - all this affects the pulse, raising it.
It is precisely because of the sharp narrowing of blood vessels and increased blood pressure that coffee is strictly not recommended for children - the not yet fully developed vascular system can be damaged by a sharp drop. The same applies to the nervous system, since children do not tolerate nervous excitement caused artificially.
Coffee with milk
Even if you drink a drink with milk, this does not mean that a certain benefit will occur. The point is in the dosage, the more drink, the more stress for the body. Many scientists have concluded that if you add milk or cream, such substances will reduce the amount of caffeine and neutralize its effect on the body. But it is impossible to completely neutralize the drink.
For hypertension, it is recommended to add dairy products, while using acceptable measures, drinking 1-2 cups per day. In addition, cream or milk makes it possible to replenish the calcium balance in the body, which is lost when consuming coffee. For coffee lovers, without hypertension and other related diseases, it is recommended to drink up to 3 cups of the drink with added milk, then there will be no negative effect.
Does coffee raise or lower blood pressure?
Spasm of blood vessels, their narrowing and decreased capacity for blood can only lead to increased blood pressure in a person. First of all, people who, due to physiological reasons, have high blood pressure should remember this.
A healthy person should also remember this feature of caffeine if he decides to drink coffee before bed. If you have no problems with sleep, and your cardiovascular system is in perfect order, then this will probably pass without a trace for you. But for most people, drinking coffee at night will not end well. An excited nervous system, high blood pressure and, at best, mild arrhythmia will keep you from falling asleep for a long time.
And also read on our website: How do nuts affect blood pressure levels - do they increase or decrease them and how to take them for hypertension?
There is a misconception that only natural coffee greatly increases blood pressure. This is not true - although instant coffee has less caffeine and is of lower quality, its amount is still enough to cause all of the above symptoms. Coffee with milk is also no different, except for its taste.
Is your blood pressure rising?
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Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. The main substance in the composition is caffeine, which is a natural stimulant. This substance is found in some varieties of nuts, tea and other leafy plants, but people get the bulk of it from coffee and chocolate.
After drinking the drink, the nervous system is stimulated, so the product is often used during times of fatigue, lack of sleep, and also to stimulate mental activity. If the concentration of the drink becomes very high, vascular spasms begin, due to which the pressure increases.
The drink also leads to increased production of adrenaline, which also affects the growth of performance. Based on this, scientists have come to the conclusion that with constant consumption of the drink in large doses, stable high blood pressure is possible in initially absolutely healthy people. This process occurs slowly in healthy people, but in the presence of certain factors that can provoke hypertension, the increase in pressure occurs faster. To increase indicators, you need to consume 2 or more cups per day.
Is it possible to lower blood pressure?
No, It is Immpossible. In any case, caffeine will have the same effect on blood vessels for each person, and not necessarily a negative one. If the standards are observed, coffee does not harm a person, but, on the contrary, acts to his benefit:
- increases performance;
- normalizes the functioning of the heart and other organs of the cardiovascular system if a person initially has low blood pressure ;
- removes salts and excess fluid from the body;
- enriches the body with some unique vitamins and microelements.
You can drink coffee in order to get all these beneficial properties without fear of lowering your blood pressure.
Intracranial pressure
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If increased intracranial or ocular pressure is diagnosed, then using coffee is strictly prohibited. Most often, an increase in intracranial indicators occurs due to spasms of cerebral vessels, and caffeine only makes them stronger. This provokes circulatory problems, as well as a general deterioration in health.
For intracranial hypertension, it is necessary to drink drugs that will increase the lumen of blood vessels and normalize blood circulation. In this case, the negative symptoms will pass and will not appear. There is no need to conduct experiments on your own, they will only do harm.
Use for hypertension
Hypertension is a disease, most often chronic, in which a person’s blood pressure is constantly elevated. This may be due to diseases of the blood vessels, nervous system, age-related changes, overexertion, etc.
Once diagnosed with hypertension, a person receives many restrictions in his diet. Now he should not abuse salty foods, alcohol, foods containing nitrates, and, most importantly, all foods containing caffeine.
To the question “is it possible to drink coffee with high blood pressure, even hypertension,” there is a clear answer – it is strictly not recommended. Of course, nothing fatal will happen from one cup of coffee with a hypertensive patient, there will be no attacks or any obvious symptoms of exacerbation of the disease. But each person is individual.
If for one person suffering from hypertension a cup of coffee caused only a slight arrhythmia and a barely noticeable increase in blood pressure, for another it could end worse. Possible consequences include:
- noise in the head, loss of coordination, dizziness;
- nausea caused by strong pressure in the blood vessels;
- redness;
- pain in the heart area;
- a severe attack in which the pressure will no longer decrease on its own, or with the help of medications, you will have to use the help of doctors.
Hypertension can be kept under control. If you adhere to all medical prescriptions and do not provoke the body to frequently increase already unstable blood pressure, the disease will cause you minimal trouble
Drinking coffee with high blood pressure, which is tormenting you right now, is stupid. Caffeine will act on the blood vessels, narrowing them even more, preventing the free passage of blood. The heart, which will have to work harder and harder in this mode, may not be able to withstand it and fail.
And also read on our website: How do blueberries affect a person’s blood pressure - does it increase or decrease it?
Heart pain - sharp or aching pain in the left side of the chest, very unpleasant. If you want to drink coffee while having problems with high blood pressure, first think about the possible symptoms.
Decaffeinated coffee
How harmless is decaffeinated coffee, and who is allowed to drink it and how much? It may seem that such a remedy is a great way out of the situation, but this is not true. The finished liquid still contains some caffeine, but its concentration is lower.
During production, a certain amount of caffeine is allowed, so in a cup of drink there will be about 14 mg of the substance if we are talking about an instant drink and about 13.5 mg in a brewed natural product.
Decaffeinated coffee is not recommended for high blood pressure because it contains many harmful elements that remain as a result of purification of the product. It also contains a lot of fats that are not found in natural grains. No less important is the taste, which not everyone likes.
If you really want to drink coffee, then it is better to make a cup of natural, brewed, but not strong, with the obligatory addition of milk or cream. Or simply use a substitute in the form of chicory.
Use for hypotension
Blood pressure can also be chronically low - this is hypotension, which occurs less frequently than hypertension, which is standard for the modern sedentary population, but often enough to be mentioned separately.
With low blood pressure, doctors give recommendations that are exactly the opposite of those given for hypertension, which is logical.
Among these recommendations are references to caffeinated foods and drinks. Drinking coffee with chronically low blood pressure is not only allowed, but even recommended. The main thing for the patient is not to confuse high blood pressure with low blood pressure, based only on your feelings.
Main symptoms:
- pale skin;
- weakness;
- decreased performance, intellectual abilities;
- unnaturally rapid fatigue;
- pain in the heart area;
- dizziness, sometimes nausea.
As you can see, some symptoms overlap. In order not to mistakenly assess your condition and ultimately take harmful measures, you need accurate knowledge of your blood pressure norm, as well as a working device for measuring pressure (tonometer).
During pregnancy
Pregnancy is a special, albeit natural, state of the female body. Most of the forces, including those intended to support the mother's immunity, are now almost completely transferred to the developing fetus. A woman will endure an increase in blood pressure in such conditions much worse than in a normal state.
There is no complete ban on drinking coffee during pregnancy; instead, there is a permissible limit for a woman to consume caffeine for one day - 200 mg. If this norm is violated, blood pressure may rise not only in the pregnant woman, but also in the fetus, which is still completely dependent on the stable functioning of the maternal systems.
Excessive coffee consumption can lead to an attack, during which the chances of harming the child increase significantly. If necessary, a pregnant woman can take up to 500 mg. caffeine per day, but in no case on an ongoing basis, only in the form of an isolated case.
The difference between natural and freeze-dried?
No modern equipment or qualifications of chemists who carefully monitor the process of making instant coffee can replace a natural product. The imitation can be of very high quality, even ideal for the average consumer, but anyone who has at least once tried real ground coffee from naturally grown beans will never again confuse it with a surrogate.
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There is nothing wrong with instant coffee; it fulfills its main functions (the effect of an energy drink, and in the case of a high-quality product, a good imitation of taste). The methods for producing artificial coffee are very different, since the demand is huge, which means the list of manufacturers who supply it to the shelves is huge.
It is quite expensive to imitate natural coffee in composition, so some manufacturers save money. As a result of these savings, instant coffee is usually less strong than natural coffee.
This is even beneficial for people suffering from hypertension. A cup of instant coffee will cause less harm than the same cup brewed with a natural base. There is no need to hope for this difference.
Firstly, in artificial coffee (especially cheap) the manufacturer may use harmful additives that may hit the body harder than caffeine. Secondly, this difference is very insignificant and at a dose exceeding the minimum it will cease to matter.