Does coffee raise your blood pressure?
Yes, for a few hours. In people with high blood pressure, 200 to 300 mg of caffeine, about two to three 8 oz coffees, raised it by about 8/6 mmHg within the first hour, and it stayed up for at least 3 hours. As a daily habit the effect is much smaller. In trials that lasted a week or more, regular coffee raised blood pressure by only about 1 point on top.
People with high blood pressure often get told to give up coffee, since it bumps your pressure up. The bump is real. It’s also short, and the long-term picture for coffee is reassuring.
Short term and long term
| What was tested | Result | Studies |
|---|---|---|
| One dose of 200 to 300 mg, people with high blood pressure | 8.1/5.7 mmHg higher, from the first hour, lasting at least 3 hours | 5 trials, 2011 |
| Coffee for 2 weeks, people with high blood pressure | No rise against no caffeine or decaf | 3 studies, 2011 |
| Regular coffee, about 725 mL a day | 1.2/0.5 mmHg higher | 18 trials, 2005 |
| Caffeine pills, about 410 mg a day | 4.2/2.4 mmHg higher | 7 trials, 2005 |
| Habitual coffee and later heart disease, people with high blood pressure | No link found | 7 cohorts, 2011 |
Caffeine on its own raised pressure more than the same caffeine in coffee did. The researchers concluded that when you get it through coffee, “the blood pressure effect of caffeine is small.”
Think of it like climbing a flight of stairs. Your pressure goes up while you’re doing it and comes back down afterward, and nobody tells you to stop using stairs.
Who should watch it
- If you measure at home, measure before your first cup, or wait a few hours after it. Otherwise you’re recording the coffee. bloodpressure.guide has how to measure.
- Slow caffeine metabolizers may be different. In a 2009 study of 553 young adults with mildly high blood pressure, coffee drinkers who carried the slow version of the CYP1A2 gene were more likely to need blood pressure medicine 8 years later, while heavy coffee drinkers with the fast version were less likely to. Your genes and caffeine has the rest.
- Energy drinks are a bigger jolt. In a 2019 trial, 34 young adults who drank 32 oz of an energy drink in an hour had their blood pressure rise and their QT interval, a measure of the heart’s electrical reset, lengthen more than with a placebo drink. Where the real risks are.
What we’d do
If your blood pressure is high, the evidence doesn’t say you have to give up coffee. Keep it to a few cups, measure before your first one, and let your own readings decide. bloodpressure.guide has the full answer from the blood pressure side, and what lowers it the most.
5 sources
- Mesas AE and others, The effect of coffee on blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in hypertensive individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2011doi.org
- Noordzij M and others, Blood pressure response to chronic intake of coffee and caffeine: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, Journal of Hypertension, 2005doi.org
- Palatini P and others, CYP1A2 genotype modifies the association between coffee intake and the risk of hypertension, Journal of Hypertension, 2009doi.org
- Shah SA and others, Impact of high volume energy drink consumption on electrocardiographic and blood pressure parameters: a randomized trial, Journal of the American Heart Association, 2019doi.org
- USDA FoodData Central, brewed coffee (FDC 171890), SR Legacyfdc.nal.usda.gov
