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
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so if you haven't subscribed yet please
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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
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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.
