Coffee-Hypertension Link Insignificant, Study Says

Reporting on a study that spanned three decades, researchers said Sunday that drinking an average of two cups of coffee per day is not likely to play a significant role in causing high blood pressure.

“Over many years of follow-up, coffee drinking is associated with small increases in blood pressure but appears to play a small role in the development of hypertension,” said the report from Johns Hopkins University.

The findings were based on a look at more than 1,000 white males who graduated from medical school at the Baltimore institution from 1948 to 1964. Of those studied, 87% were coffee drinkers; the median amount of coffee consumed was two cups per day.

Their coffee intake was checked an average of 11 times over 33 years to determine if any increases in blood pressure associated with coffee consumption translated into hypertension.

The authors of the study said a link between drinking coffee and an increase in blood pressure has been postulated for at least 60 years, but no studies have been conducted to prove a cause-and-effect link.

“Long-term coffee drinking did not substantially increase the risk of hypertension,” concluded the report appearing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Assn.