A major metastudy, reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which followed more than 170,000 people over a period of 30 years, has definitively demonstrated that caffeine does not increase blood pressure.
Many doctors and kibbitzers from the Dark Side have been attacking caffeine for many years, spreading the myth that caffeine increases blood pressure. You can read about Dr. Jack James, one of the most notorious and powerful campaigners against caffeine, and his high blood pressure calumnies in our post “The Politics of Caffeine and Coffee.”
It’s been known for decades that caffeine didn’t increase cardiovascular pathology. This was demonstrated in the Tromso Heart Study, the Honolulu Heart Study, and many other studies. More recently, it was proven in a study of over 125,000 people that caffeine use reduces all-cause mortality — in other words, that people who use caffeine tend to live longer than those who do not. But caffeine’s greatest benefit in prolonging life is that caffeine users are significantly less likely to die of heart disease (i.e., heart attacks, stroke, and other heart problems) than those who shy away from the stuff. The researchers found that women who drank four to five cups per day were 34% less likely to die of heart disease, while men who had more than five cups a day were 44% less likely to die of heart disease. You can read more about this in our post “Protect Your Heart and Live Longer with Caffeine.”
So caffeine is extremely beneficial to heart health. If you consume three, four, or more cups of coffee a day, you are significantly less likely to suffer or die from heart disease. This fact made an association between caffeine and high blood pressure a putative absurdity, if only because even slight increases in blood pressure increase cardiovascular disease and mortality.
But malevolent mavens like Jack James, who runs The Journal of Caffeine Research, continued to assert that caffeine did, in fact, raise blood pressure! Well, the answer is finally here. We hope that this question has finally been put to rest.
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