Hello, well today I want to do something different. I want to talk to you about
the effect of caffeine on your cardiovascular health as well as your
mental health. More specifically I want to talk to you
about the effect of caffeine on your blood pressure as well as anxiety. So, I'm
gonna do something different. What I want to do is; I'm going to go into that
coffee shop over there and I'm gonna buy some coffee just to illustrate the point
okay so let's go in
yeah Macchiato double yeah
Welcome back
I'm Dr Joe of TheDrJoe.com If this is your first time on this channel, can I
extend a warm welcome to you. This is your home of 20/20 ideas of better
health so if you haven't subscribed yet please
do subscribe and also please do not forget to click on the Notification Bell
because that's how you get notified of future videos that I make. So like I said
before today I want to talk about the effect of caffeine on our cardiovascular
health and mental health as well. In particular specifically I want to talk
about the effects of caffeine on the blood pressure as well as anxiety. The
reason I want to do this video (I've done a similar video before) as you probably
know but that one was all about coffee. But I keep getting questions regarding the
effects of caffeine on blood pressure and I felt I needed to clarify this. So,
this video is about the 'HOW'. I'm going to talk about the basic physiology and the
decision as to whether you want to keep consuming as much caffeine as you like
will be up to you. It's not going to be prescriptive but it's just going to be
descriptive. So, the final decision is going to be yours. So, what happens when
you consume caffeine. First of all, let me have a sip. I don't normally drink a lot
of coffee but I've paid for this. So, I've got to drink it.
So, what happens when I drink this coffee? Well, the coffee's gonna get digested and
the caffeine is gonna get absorbed into my bloodstream and when it gets to my
brain what does it do? Well, it blocks Adenosine activity. So the caffeine blocks
Adenosine activity. Adenosine is a chemical in the brain that's supposed to signal to
our body that we're tired. That initiates the rest-activity cycle. So, the rest
part of it. Ideally we should rest to recharge our bodies but when we consume
caffeine that activity is blocked. So we no longer feel tired. We no longer feel
fatigued and we get that buzz. We get a psychoactive kick. That's why caffeine is
actually described as a psychoactive drug. So that's the effect in the brain. So,
what about our arteries? Well, we also have adenosine receptors in our arteries and
the same effect actually happens in our arteries. What does that mean? Well, the
caffeine actually blocks the adenosine receptors in our arteries and adenosine
supposed to be a vasodilator. A vasodilator is something that relaxes the
blood vessels but when that activity is blocked what tends to happen is you have
stiffening of the arteries, narrowing of the arteries and that results in a rise
in our blood pressure. So, that's the first mechanism through which caffeine
actually raises the blood pressure. So, what else does caffeine do? Well, it goes
to our adrenal organs. The adrenal organs are tiny organs on top of our kidneys. It goes
in there and it signals the release of adrenaline and what's adrenaline? Let me
just turn to Bradley. Bradley oh by the way Bradley is my son. Wave to
the camera. So, adrenaline is a hormone? True or False? True. Excellent. He knows
his stuff. So, it goes to the adrenal organs, signals the release of adrenaline and
what's the major action of adrenaline Brad? I believe it prepares our body for
fight-or-flight response. Excellent. Well money well spent. All the
money I spent in schooling him is money well spent. He knows his stuff. He
was paying attention in school. Yes, Adrenaline actually prepares our body for
fight-or-flight response but the effect doesn't end there. It actually has
an effect on our arteries as well. What does it do in our arteries? Well, it goes
in there because we have adrenaline receptors in our blood vessels, in our
arteries and over there what it does is that it actually
because it's narrowing of the blood vessels as well so that's the second
mechanism. Because once they narrow, what happens then? Our blood pressure goes up
But not just that. When you have adrenaline in your circulation, the next
thing that happens is that; it's not actually good for anxiety. So for
somebody who has issues with anxiety, Adrenaline makes you restless. It
makes you nervous. So, that's another reason why caffeine is not in nice
product for you to consume if you've got problems with anxiety. What's the next thing
that caffeine does. Well, it actually revs up what we call the sympathetic nervous
system. Now if you've got high blood pressure or you've got anxiety, you
don't want the sympathetic nervous system to dominate. You want the
parasympathetic to dominate. You want that parasympathetic dominance. The reason
for that is the sympathetic nervous system raises your blood pressure
It makes you nervous. It raises your heart rate, but the Para sympathetic does
the opposite. It brings your heart rate down. It lowers your blood pressure so
you want the parasympathetic dominance but when you consume caffeine, what tends
to happen is; the blood pressure goes up as well so that's another mechanism
through which caffeine actually affects your blood pressure and of course it
also makes anxiety worse because of the effect on the sympathetic nervous system
So, what's the next in the caffeine does to our body in terms of blood pressure
and anxiety? The effects of caffeine on the adrenal glands is not limited to the
release of adrenaline. It also actually stimulates the release of cortisol
Cortisol is a stress hormone. We need to blow cortisol in our
circulation but you don't want a lot. So, when you have an elevation of cortisol
levels that also leads to narrowing of the blood vessels and that means your
blood pressure is going to be elevated and also because cortisol is a stress
hormone, it's also not good for anxiety. Now is there another way that caffeine
actually affects our blood pressure and anxiety as well? Well, the final thing is
that in actual fact when you consume caffeine...this
caffeine I have taken this afternoon, how long does it take for my body to get
rid of it? Well, the average half-life of caffeine in our system is about six
hours. That's why my usual advice is that you should not be consuming caffeine
beyond 2:00 p.m. The reason for that is; it may have an effect on your sleep. In
particular the sleep quality because there are five stages of sleep and it
will affect the smooth transition from stages one to stage 5 of your sleep
cycle and if you don't sleep well what happens? You're going to have difficulty
continuing your blood pressure and that's going to have a knock-on effect
on your anxiety as well. So, if you notice I have a lot of videos on sleep and
that's because sleep is so important to the control of your blood pressure and
sleep is also very important to how you manage your anxiety. By the way coffee is
not the only food that has caffeine in it. There are other food products. Other
beverages and here's just a list of some of those products. So, the effect of
caffeine on blood pressure and anxiety is not actually a sustained effect. I
just want to make that clear. The effect is actually temporary but this varies
from person to person. How temporary will depend on whether you are a fast
metabolizer or a slow metabolizer. Of course, if you a
slow metabolizer then effect is gonna last longer. The next thing I need to say is,
that caffeine effect on people with anxiety and high blood pressure is
usually longer compared to individuals who do not have these medical problems
so here is a list of some of the products that are caffeinated that you
may or may not be aware of. This list is not exhaustive by the way. So here we go:
iced tea, green tea, oolong tea, black tea, matcha tea, yerba tea, morning dew, diet
morning dew, kick citrus, mellow yellow, red flash, Red Bull, Bang energy drinks,
Monster energy drinks, jolt, storm, ruby red, Mr. Pibb Sunkist orange, big red,
snapple flavored teas, diet coke, your regular coke, Pepsi Cola,
Pepsi twist, canada dry cola. To all intents and purposes, all Cola drinks are
actually caffeinated. Root beer regardless of the brand whether is mug
A&W, Barq's, Sierra Mist, Sundrop orange, A&W creme soda, chocolate flavored ice cream
and frozen yogurt, coffee yogurt, quaker cocoa blast, pudding, over-the-counter
medications like Excedrin, Midol, Kashi granola bars, Redd brand of protein bars
as well. They are all caffeinated. Like I said this list is not exhaustive. Just to
give you a flavor of some of the products. The thing to remember is that, you may
actually drink your coffee and still consume some of these products without
realizing that they are caffeinated but the effect actually adds up before you
know it. So, what should you do? What I'll say is; listen to your body and how your
blood pressure control is. How your anxiety control is. If you're struggling
to get on top of your blood pressure management or your anxiety management
then you have a decision to make as to whether you want to limit or avoid
consumption of some of these products and of course that includes coffee. Like
I said this presentation is just going to be descriptive but not prescriptive
The decision as to whether you want to limit or avoid consumption is actually
up to you. So, by the way if you enjoyed this video as usual give it a 'Thumbs up'
please share this video as well with your friends, your family members as well
as your colleagues. If you haven't subscribed yet, please do subscribe. It's
right there. I think that's all. You've got any comments, make me them right down
there. That's it. Until next time, well this is Dr Joe signing out.