Once upon a time, a group of curious scientists led by Choy-Lye Chei embarked on an intriguing journey to unravel a mystery that has long puzzled people: does drinking tea and coffee affect the chances of getting high blood pressure?
Their findings, shared in a publication called The European Journal of Nutrition, offer some surprising insights.
Let’s start with caffeine. It’s a natural substance that wakes up your body and mind. You can find it in many everyday items like coffee, tea, cola, chocolate, and some exotic drinks like guarana and yerba mate.
Caffeine gives you a boost by energizing your brain, heart, muscles, and even the parts of your body that control blood pressure.
For a long time, people have wondered whether enjoying a daily cup of coffee or tea might lead to high blood pressure.
To find an answer, our scientists turned their attention to a large group of 63,257 people in Singapore, aged between 45 and 74, who were part of a study from 1993 to 1998.
They closely looked at these individuals’ habits, especially how often they drank coffee or tea, and other aspects of their lifestyle.
Fast forward a few years, and after two rounds of interviews between 1999 and 2010, the scientists discovered that 13,658 of these people had developed high blood pressure.
What they found next was intriguing. People who drank three or more cups of coffee every day were less likely to have high blood pressure compared to those who only had one cup daily.
Tea drinkers, however, faced a slightly different scenario. Those who enjoyed black or green tea every day were a bit more likely to have high blood pressure than those who drank tea less often.
Digging deeper, the researchers noticed a pattern. The more caffeine someone consumed, the higher their risk of high blood pressure seemed to be.
Specifically, those guzzling the most caffeine (300 mg or more daily) faced a 16% higher risk than those who consumed very little (less than 50 mg a day).
Interestingly, the scientists think that drinking very little coffee (less than one cup a week) or a lot (three or more cups daily) might actually lower the risk of high blood pressure.
They suspect that for heavy coffee drinkers, other ingredients in coffee might work against caffeine’s effects and help with blood pressure.
But, daily tea drinkers and those sipping just one cup of coffee a day might find themselves at a slightly increased risk because of caffeine.
However, the story isn’t complete yet. The researchers believe more studies are needed to fully understand how coffee and tea impact blood pressure.
Their work so far suggests that how we consume these beverages plays a significant role in our health, particularly in the context of high blood pressure. So, next time you pour yourself a cup, remember, it’s not just about taste, but it might also be about your health.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies about potatoes and high blood pressure, and top 10 choices for a blood pressure-friendly diet
For more information about high blood pressure, please see recent studies about impact of vitamins on high blood pressure you need to know, and the powerful link between high blood pressure and a potassium-rich diet.
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