For many people, the day doesn’t really begin until they can get their first cup of coffee in their hands. Besides giving you the kick you need in the morning to kick into high gear, research has also shown that java can have significant health benefits in some cases. But as a powerful stimulant, there are still plenty of reasons to watch how much Joe you put in. And now a new study has found that drinking just two cups of coffee a day can double the risk of death from heart disease in people with high blood pressure. Read on to see if you should wait to order the next mug.
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A new study has found that drinking two cups of coffee a day doubles the risk of heart disease and death in people with severe high blood pressure.
The latest insight into coffee potential health effects comes from a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) the dec. 21. To collect data, a team of researchers used 6,574 men and 12,035 women participating in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Cancer Risk Assessment. All participants in the group were between 40 and 79 years old when they enrolled in the study between 1988 and 1990.
The attendees were followed until 2009, during which they self-reported their coffee and tea drinking habits and had their lifestyle, diet and medical history assessed using data collected from health screenings and questionnaires , according to a statement from the American Heart Association (AHA). Blood pressure was taken at some point during the study, allowing the team to place each participant into one of five groups based on their readings. The categories were divided into optimal and normal at a blood pressure of 130/85; normal high at 130-139/85-89; grade 1 hypertension of 140-159/90-99; grade 2 hypertension at 160-179/100-109; and grade 3 hypertension for readings of 180/110 or greater. For the purposes of the study, anyone with a reading of 160/100 or more was considered to have severe hypertension.
The results of the team’s analysis revealed that study participants in the severe hypertension category who drank two or more cups of coffee a day saw their risk of dying from heart disease double compared to to those who didn’t drink coffee.
The results also showed that not everyone who drank coffee or tea experienced the same spike in risk.
But while the results indicate that drinking coffee is a potential health problem, it wasn’t a problem across the board. Drinking just one cup a day does not increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. And no amount of green tea, which is also a caffeinated beverage, has been shown assign any group.
“We were surprised that high coffee consumption was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in people with severe hypertension, but not in those without or with grade 1 hypertension,” Masayuki Teramoto, MD, author of the study from Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, told HealthDay. In contrast, green tea consumption was not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in all blood pressure categories.
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Other research has found health benefits from drinking coffee.
In its press release announcing new searchthe AHA points out that previous studies have actually found that there was some health benefits at the coffee shop. A 2021 study published in the journal Circulation: Heart failure found that increased coffee consumption was associated with a decreased risk of heart failure. The organization also cited other research who found that drinking coffee could actually reduce the risk of hypertension in patients who had not yet been diagnosed with the disease.
The researchers in the latest study also pointed out that the elevated risk might not be caffeine-related given all the findings with green tea. Instead, they explained that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of the polyphenols in the drink might be behind the correlation.
“These beneficial effects of green tea may partly explain why coffee consumption alone was associated with an increased risk of mortality in people with severe hypertension, despite both green tea and caffeinated coffee,” Teramoto said. at HealthDay.
The researchers concluded that people with severe hypertension might want to reconsider their coffee consumption.
Ultimately, the researchers said the study had some limitations, including that the coffee and tea consumption data were self-reported and that no other blood pressure readings were taken to account. changes over time. The team also said more research is needed to establish a stronger link between coffee or green tea consumption and blood pressure using more diverse groups of participants. But they concluded that their findings pointed to some potential lifestyle decisions for people with hypertension.
These results may support the claim that people with severe high blood pressure should avoid drinking too much coffee. Hiroyasu Iso, MD, PhD, the study’s lead author and director of the Institute for Global Health Policy Research at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo, said in a press release. Because people with severe hypertension are more sensitive to the effects of caffeine, the harmful effects of caffeine may outweigh its protective effects and may increase the risk of death.
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