Coffee contains chemicals called tannins. Tannins can bind to certain medications for depression (tricyclic antidepressants) and decrease how much medicine the body absorbs. To avoid this interaction, avoid coffee one hour before and two hours after taking these medications.
If your blood pressure is not well-controlled with medication or lifestyle changes, avoid caffeine until it is in a safe range.
Background: Adenosine receptor activation is essential for mediating the IS-limiting effects of statins. Caffeine is a nonspecific adenosine receptor blocker, and thus drinking CC may block the myocardial protective effects of statins.
Food and alcohol
Grapefruit juice can affect some statins and increase your risk of side effects. A doctor may advise you to avoid it completely or only consume small quantities. The doctor will also ask you how much alcohol you drink before prescribing statins.
Some research suggests coffee can lower the risk for high blood pressure, also called hypertension, in people who don't already have it. But drinking too much coffee has been shown to raise blood pressure and lead to anxiety, heart palpitations and trouble sleeping.
To see if caffeine might be raising your blood pressure, check your blood pressure before drinking a cup of coffee or other caffeinated beverage and again 30 to 120 minutes afterward. If your blood pressure increases by about 5 to 10 points, you may be sensitive to the blood pressure raising effects of caffeine.
However, if you're concerned about caffeine's effect on your blood pressure, try limiting the amount of caffeine you drink to 200 milligrams a day — about the same amount as is generally in one to two 8-ounce cups of brewed black coffee.
Coffee can limit the effectiveness of many medications. Researchers urge people to space out coffee and prescription drugs. Only drink water with medicine. Washing down your medication with coffee may speed up your morning routine, but it slows down how quickly you get better.
Lower Blood Pressure: Quitting caffeine can lower your blood pressure and take pressure off of your heart. Improved Sleep: Because it has a relatively long half-life, caffeine can negatively impact sleep long after you've consumed it.
So in the morning, 9 to 11:30 AM. In the afternoon, between 1 and 5 PM. These periods between natural cortisol boosts are the times where that caffeine jolt will be most productive. Instead of crashing between peaks, you'll maintain alertness.
Normal blood pressure for most adults is defined as a systolic pressure of less than 120 and a diastolic pressure of less than 80.
Recently, the American Heart Association (AHA) updated their guidance to indicate that people age 65 and older should ideally have a blood pressure reading lower than 130/80 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury).
Drinking more than 4 cups of coffee a day may increase your blood pressure. If you're a big fan of coffee, tea or other caffeine-rich drinks, such as cola and some energy drinks, consider cutting down.
At the beginning, measure your blood pressure at least twice daily. Take it first in the morning before eating or taking any medications. Take it again in the evening.
It also helps lower risk of diabetes, heart disease
More good news for chocolate lovers: A new Harvard study finds that eating a small square of dark chocolate daily can help lower blood pressure for people with hypertension.
Which cholesterol-lowering drug is the safest? Overall, statins are safe as a class of drugs. Serious adverse events are very rare. Among the individual medications, studies have shown that simvastatin (Zocor®) and pravastatin (Pravachol®) seem to be safer and better tolerated than the other statins.
Statins: Don't eat grapefruit
Grapefruit and other citrus fruits can interfere with how your body metabolizes these medications.
Walking lowers systolic blood pressure by 4.11 mm Hg (95% CI, 3.01 to 5.22 mm Hg). It lowers diastolic blood pressure by 1.79 mm Hg (95% CI, 1.07 to 2.51 mm Hg) and resting heart rate by 2.76 beats per minute (bpm; 95% CI, 0.95 to 4.57 bpm).