Posted by Steve

>How high should blood pressure be before I go to the doctor's for
>medication? Another question: Does drinking coffee raise the
>blood pressure, it makes my heart feel like it's beating faster --
>any connection???

I think the caffeine issue has a lot to do with the individual. It is
a stimulant in that it will cause the heart to beat faster. On first
impression, this evidence would leave one to believe that the blood pressure
would also increase. Caffeine has, though, several other important effects:
1) Acts as a vasodilator, increasing the size of the lumen (inside
portion) of the arterioles. This serves to lower blood pressure since it
increases the size of the vessels while not affecting the volume of fluid
within them.
2) Acts as a diuretic, so it pulls water from the blood and excretes
it as urine. This also serves to reduce the total blood volume, but at the
same time, may thicken the blood bny concentrating it.
So you see, there are many physiological effects something like coffee has, so
it really depends on the individual's personal physiological makeup whether it
will have the total effect of increasing or decreasing BP, or having no net
effect whatsoever.

Steve
DC Student

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