Originally published November 10 2005
No link between coffee drinking and hypertension in women, study says
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study in JAMA has found that there is no link between habitual coffee drinking and hypertension in women, though the Harvard researchers did find evidence of a link between soda drinking and hypertension.
Approximately 50 million people in the United States have hypertension, and the prevalence is increasing, according to background information in the article.
Hypertension is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.
Several previous studies have indicated a possible association between caffeine intake and the risk of hypertension.
Short-term studies have demonstrated that caffeine intake acutely increases blood pressure, but over time, weakening of this effect does occur.
A long-term effect of caffeine intake on the risk of developing hypertension would be of substantial public health importance given the widespread consumption of beverages containing caffeine, but currently, studies of this association are scarce.
The researchers analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Studies (NHSs) I and II of 155,594 U.S. women free from physician-diagnosed hypertension, who were followed-up over 12 years (1990-1991 to 2002-2003).
Over the 12 years, 19,541 incident cases of physician-diagnosed hypertension were reported in NHS I and 13,536 in NHS II.
In both cohorts, no linear association between caffeine consumption and risk of incident hypertension was observed after multivariate adjustment.
When studying individual classes of caffeinated beverages, habitual coffee consumption was not associated with increased risk of hypertension.
By contrast, consumption of cola beverages was associated with an increased risk of hypertension, independent of whether it was sugared or diet cola.
"In this study with more than 1.4 million person-years of follow-up [the number of women in the study times the number of years of follow-up per woman], the relevant exposures and outcomes have been found valid and accurate, and coffee intake was updated to reflect changes in individual behavior.
We found strong evidence to refute speculation that coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of hypertension in women," the authors write.
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