Can caffeine raise your blood pressure temporarily?

From Mayo Clinic:

Caffeine can cause a short, but dramatic increase in your blood pressure, even if you don’t have high blood pressure. It’s unclear what causes this spike in blood pressure. Some researchers believe that caffeine could block a hormone that helps keep your arteries widened.

There you go – thanks!

I also have strong suspicions that the person taking blood pressure can make a difference. Whenever I take mine using different machines at home or work it’s always consistant. For several years the same assistant took mine before physicals and it was borderline high, but it was operator error. My doc did not believe me when I said the reading was an error. These last couple of times a different assistant took it and it matched what the machines always say. My doc kept aking me what I did to lower my BP. I asked him if a lot of his patients suddenly saw improved BP. Light bulb goes on in his head silently.
I guess the take away is if you are told you have high or low blood pressure from a single manual reading or from manual readings from the same person take it with a grain of salt and independently verify.

@ARE_you_kidding_me , you’re describing White Coat Hypertension.

@ARE_you_kidding_me That is interesting. When I have had a high reading, my doctor checked it herself to verify. (I do have hypertension).

Not whitecoat hypertension, that is real though, this case was the fact that there is not any real consistency with manual readings.

@zenvelo, my doc did not. He just fully trusted his assistant.

I take a BP med, a low dose, 10mgs. of Lisinopril and drink plenty of coffee in the mornings. Yes, it can raise your BP temporarily but my doc has not told me to quit drinking it. Hell no, never! haha

I was hypertensive for a few years when I lived in Colorado. I had my very own sphygmomanometer (funner to say than spell!) so I could check my BP several times a day. Within a few minutes of coffee, my numbers would shoot up. And really spicy food. That worked, too.

I’m almost always 120/70 but this was 122/84 which surprised me.

Sure. But, do you drink caffeine regularly? Is this the first time you went to the doctor after having coffee?

Did you ask them to repeat it?

If I were you I would check your blood pressure a few times over the next week and see if it is consistently higher. Try taking it at various times during the day. One high-ish reading means nothing, but consistently higher might mean something. For me it means I need to up my thyroid meds. For other people it’s something else.

@janbb That is nothing, I can run around 140ish over 90ish at times.
I started this med in April and it is now around 120ish over 70ish too.
I am hoping to drop the med eventually but my stress levels have been high the last few years and, bad me, I started smoking a few cigarettes again after quitting for a long time. Bad habits rear their ugly heads during times of stress. You are Penguishly fine in the BP zone.

@JLeslie Nope – I’m not going to worry about it. It’s still fine and I have the explanation. Next time I go to my regular doctor – which might be in 6 months – I’ll check it then.

Ok. If you’re not worried about it then I think your plan is good.

Regarding ‘white coat hypertension. ’

When I used to work with animals we would take the BP three times and average it. Usually you get three different readings. Not wildly different, but different.

Blood pressure today at doctor’s was 108 over 64 so I guess I was right not to worry.

@janbb That’s a little low, maybe stop sitting on top of your igloo.

@Coloma, nah, she’s just that chill….

^^^ haha, good one!

Come to think of it, my tushie is a bit cold!