The truth about caffeine and your blood vessels

Easy Health Options ^ | 10/21/2025 | Carolyn Gretton

[SeekAndFind]

Is caffeine good or bad for your heart?

There’s no doubt that caffeine can raise your blood pressure and heart rate.

But consuming moderate amounts of caffeine daily also has been linked to supple arteries and reduced risk of heart failure and atrial fibrillation.

Now there’s more good heart health news for those of us who love our coffee, tea and cocoa…

Caffeine and your blood vessels

Vascular disease, damage of blood vessels and their resulting consequences — heart attack and stroke — are among the leading causes of death in the general population.

These risks are even higher in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. This is due to the diseases themselves and some of their treatments, particularly derivatives of cortisone.

Until now, doctors have recommended avoiding risk factors to protect against vascular dysfunction. These recommendations included:

• Halting inflammation
• Decreasing cortisone medications
• Not smoking
• Reducing cholesterol
• Getting blood pressure under control

However, researchers from Sapienza University of Rome found suggestions that caffeine actively helps endothelial progenitor cells. This group of cells helps regenerate the lining of blood vessels and is involved in vascular growth.

A diet rich in vitamins D (found in oily fish and eggs) and A (found in many fruits), as well as polyunsaturated fatty acids, and low in sodium, appears to play a role in reducing the inflammatory burden. Scientists have been curious if caffeine belongs on that list.

Caffeine exerts its anti-inflammatory effect by binding with receptors expressed on the surface of immune cells.

The researchers studied 31 lupus patients who did not have traditional cardiovascular risk factors using a seven-day food questionnaire. After a week, the investigators took the patients’ blood to measure the health of their blood vessels. They found that patients who consumed caffeine had better vascular health, as measured by endothelial cells, which form the innermost layer of blood vessels.

“The present study is an attempt to provide patients with information on the possible role of diet in controlling the disease,” says Fulvia Ceccarelli, the paper’s lead author. “It will be necessary to confirm the results through a longitudinal study, aimed at assessing the real impact of coffee consumption on the disease course.”

There is a daily limit

Keep in mind that most health agencies recommend you consume no more than 400 mg of caffeine a day. Given that a typical eight-ounce cup of coffee contains 95 mg of caffeine, that means limiting your intake to roughly four of these cups.

However, the smallest coffee size at many coffee shops is 12 ounces, and the largest can exceed 20 ounces. If you tend to get your coffee fix there or use an oversized mug at home, you need to bear the size in mind.

Also, if you’re a fan of espresso drinks, bear in mind that they contain a compound that can negate coffee’s heart benefits and are often loaded with added fat and sugar. You may want to stick with brewed coffee to reap the full benefits of caffeine.

If you want to moderate your caffeine consumption, a good way to do so is to replace a cup or two of coffee with black or green tea. A cup of black tea contains approximately 47 mg of caffeine, while a cup of green tea contains around 33 mg.

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: 5hourenergy; bloodpressure; bloodvessels; caffeine; cocoa; coffee; cola; redbull; tea

[SeekAndFind]

Sources:

Caffeine is a heart-healthy habit — EurekAlert!

Caffeine improves systemic lupus erythematosus endothelial dysfunction by promoting endothelial progenitor cells survival — Rheumatology

How Much Caffeine Is In a Cup of Coffee? — Food Network

How much caffeine is in tea? — GoodFood

[C210N]

Personally, I find staying away from salt a straw-man for lower BP and heart health.

More important is eliminating added sugars and keeping daily carb intake low.

I now add salt, plenty of it, and drink caffeinated tea daily, with a resulting average to low BP.

[Red Badger]

COFFEE GOOD!......this week..............

[CatOwner]

I am not a coffee drinker, but I do drink iced tea (brewed from black tea) most days. Usually about 16-24 oz, so roughly 100-150 mg in a day.

[Red Badger]

I have been drinking coffee ever since I was 5 years old.

I am now 70.

It would probably kill me if I stopped now...............

[sjmjax]

Pretty close to the same here.

Started drinking coffee in elementary school. Especially on cold winter mornings. Back when it was common for us to walk to school.

[PJ-Comix]

I drink coffee in the mornings. But late afternoon and evenings I drink iced tea that I make from SCRATCH. I mean NO tea bags. I pick up green tea leaves at an Indian (Hindu type) market and then put a measured amount into hot water (about 180 degrees). Then stir for over a minute and pour through a strainer into another pot where it is mixed with natural honey. Then pour all of it into a gallon container. I repeat this process a total of 3 times unit the gallon container is full.

I find the caffeine from this tea to be very relaxing as opposed to my stimulating caffeine from my morning coffee.

[GaltAdonis]

My father had heart disease but never had a heart attack.
He smoked a pack-and-a-half for 60 years and lived to 89.
I never bothered to count the number of cups of coffee he drank.
It was a LOT.

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. A cup a day seems to work for me. Every individual is different. Take note of what you put in your body and understand what seems to help or hurt you.

Health/life BUMP

[Red Badger]

The only time I didn’t drink coffee was in Marine Corps boot camp.

I had no problem staying awake there...............

[jerod]

I now of lots of little old ladies who died in the 90s drinking tea on a daily basis... So I’ve always assumed the tea is good for you.

[Carriage Hill]

Ditto that.
I do Chemex brewing, and drink 4-6 mugs/day.
I thank the Lord for the coffee bean gift to mankind.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Coffee good.

Coffee bad.

Coffee good.

Coffee bad.

Coffee good.

Coffee bad.

Coffee good.

Coffee bad.

Coffee good.

Coffee bad.

Coffee good.

Guess the needle stopped on good this week.

I should have another cup to celebrate.

[kawhill]

I don’t care if it’s good or bad...if I quit coffee I’d probably die.

[Sequoyah101]

Carbs and processed foods are the culprits and if you can resist the temptation you will be better off for it. Just a couple of weeks of discipline from them will be felt, if you can manage it. Carbs in the form of sugars alone are in everything that comes from a box, they are all but unavoidable if you buy anything in a box or wrapper. If you just keep a tally through the day of the % of daily recommended allowance you will notice a positive change. It does not come naturally for me and is not an easy habit to stay with.

I go sparing on salt unless I sweat a lot in the summer and I am losing fluid by the bucket. Somehow the body knows what to do. I make up for salt with pepper though.

My coffee drinking went from probably 20 cups a day in my misspent youth to about 2 medium size mugs over the morning hours now 50 years later. Probably much better and my BP is well managed but not so much my sugar. Carbs are the culprit and they are hard to resist. My cats can’t even resist and will eat dry food even when offered good canned food in the case of a few of them and all of them munch dry food all day.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“a good way to do so is to replace a cup or two of coffee with black or green tea”

Gag me!

[TokarevM57]

...I just made a pot of coffee.....not often, but sometimes a cup of coffee at mid-day helps my get-up-and-go get up and GO!

[Signalman]

The keyword is “moderation”.

[sauropod]

Bkmk