ArticleClinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society2023
Immediate effect of caffeine on sympathetic nerve activity: why coffee is safe? A single-centre crossover study.
Article in Clinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Habitual preexercise caffeine supplementation prevents exercise training-induced attenuation of exercising systolic blood pressure and double product.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2025Trial
- Caffeinated Coffee Consumption and Atrial Arrhythmia Recurrence After Pulmonary Vein Isolation.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Cortical excitation does not drive changes in skin sympathetic nerve activity during single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation in humans.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Relationship between coffee concentration and bowel motility using bowel-sound-based stimulus-response plots in healthy individuals.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does not directly affect muscle sympathetic nerve activity in humans.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
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Abstract
purposesHabitual coffee drinking is ubiquitous and generally considered to be safe despite its transient hypertensive effect. Our purpose was to determine the role of the sympathetic nervous system in the hypertensive response.
methodsIn a single-centre crossover study, medical caregivers were studied after consumption of standard coffee (espresso), water and decaffeinated coffee (decaff) given in random order at least 1 month apart. Plasma caffeine levels, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, total peripheral resistance and muscle sympathetic activity were recorded. Baroreflex activity was assessed using burst incidence and RR interval changes to spontaneous blood pressure fluctuations.
resultsA total of 16 subjects (mean [± standard error] age 34.4 ± 2 years; 44% female) were recruited to the study. Three agents were studied in ten subjects, and two agents were studied in six subjects. Over a 120-min period following the consumption of standard coffee, mean (± SE) plasma caffeine levels increased from 2.4 ± 0.8 to 21.0 ± 4 µmol/L and arterial pressure increased to 103 ± 1 mmHg compared to water (101 ± 1 mmHg; p = 0.066) and decaff (100 ± 1 mmHg; p = 0.016). Peripheral resistance in the same period following coffee increased to 120 ± 4% of the baseline level compared to water (107 ± 4; p = 0.01) and decaff (109 ± 4; p = 0.02). Heart rate was lower after both coffee and decaff consumption: 62 ± 1 bpm compared to water (64 bpm; p = 0.01 and p = 0.02, respectively). Cardio-vagal baroreflex activity remained stable after coffee, but sympathetic activity decreased, with burst frequency of 96 ± 3% versus water (106 ± 3%; p = 0.04) and decaff (112 ± 3%; p = 0.001) despite a fall in baroreflex activity from - 2.2 ± 0.1 to - 1.8 ± 0.1 bursts/100 beats/mmHg, compared to water (p = 0.009) and decaff (p = 0.004).
conclusionThe hypertensive response to coffee is secondary to peripheral vasoconstriction but this is not mediated by increased sympathetic nerve activity. These results may explain why habitual coffee drinking is safe.
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