A Drink Skews Blood Pressure Readings

A recent study published in the American Journal of Hypertension introduces a new twist to the blood pressure debate.

You may not actually have high blood pressure even if your doctor says that you do.

You might just have had this drink a few hours before your doctor’s office visit.

If this is the case, you may be suffering the side effects of blood pressure medications or worrying about your blood pressure for nothing.

Researchers at the Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute asked 13 people with normal blood pressure to abstain from caffeinated products for a week.

Then, over the course of the study, participants were asked to drink two 300 ml cups of black coffee a day (for week 1), take the maximum recommended dose of felodipine, a common calcium channel blocker used as a blood pressure treatment (for week 2), and have the coffee together with the felodipine (for week 3).

After analyzing the results, the researchers drew the following conclusions:

1. After 2 days of no caffeine consumption, caffeine clears from your bloodstream, resulting in a higher blood pressure spike when next you consume it. These blood pressure spikes take hours to subside.

2. In the presence of caffeine, calcium channel blockers cannot decrease blood pressure as well, probably because caffeine interferes with the ability of the drug to relax and widen blood vessels.

The first conclusion raises the possibility that your doctor will diagnose you with hypertension when your blood pressure is actually normal. So, if you only occasionally drink caffeinated drinks, you should avoid them for the hours before your doctor’s visit.

Second, if you want to treat your blood pressure with drugs, you’ll need sky-high doses if you occasionally consume caffeine.

Results also suggest that the efficacy of natural dietary and lifestyle approaches to blood pressure management (which we of course recommend) will be reduced for a few hours following caffeine intake.

The good news is that this study only applies to occasional consumers.

Researchers have long understood that caffeine raises blood pressure, but they have also repeatedly concluded that regular consumption increases your tolerance such that blood pressure is no longer affected.

This leaves you with two options: Either drink one or two caffeinated drinks daily or leave it alone completely.

But if your high blood pressure is real, you should do these three exercises, guaranteed to drop your blood pressure below 120/80 — as soon as today…

And if your cholesterol is too high, normalize your cholesterol and clear out your clogged arteries by cutting out this ONE ingredient you didn’t even know you were consuming…