Abstract
Previous studies have suggested that the risk of ischemic stroke increases immediately after drinking coffee. Indeed, drinking coffee, that is, caffeine, acutely increases arterial stiffness as well as blood pressure and peripheral vascular resistance. On the other hand, it has been reported that arterial stiffening is associated with elevation in the pulsatility index (PI) of cerebral blood flow (CBF), which increases the risk of brain disease. However, the effect of drinking coffee on the PI of the CBF and its interaction with arterial stiffness remain unknown. Against this background, we hypothesized that an acute increase in arterial stiffness induced by drinking coffee augments cerebral pulsatile stress. To test this hypothesis, in 10 healthy young men we examined the effects of drinking coffee on the PI of middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAv) and brachial‐ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) as indices of cerebral pulsatile stress and arterial stiffness, respectively. Mean arterial blood pressure and baPWV were higher (P < 0.01 and P = 0.02), whereas mean MCAV and mean cerebrovascular conductance index were lower upon drinking coffee (P = 0.02 and P < 0.01) compared with a placebo (decaffeinated coffee). However, there was no difference in the PI of MCAv between drinking coffee and the placebo condition. These findings suggest that drinking coffee does not increase cerebral pulsatile stress acutely despite an elevation in arterial stiffness in the systemic circulation.
Highlights
Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide, but it has been suggested that chronic coffee drinking has a negative influence on cardiovascular function because of caffeine
mean arterial blood pressures (MAP) and SBP were higher at 30 and 60 min after drinking in the Coffee condition than in the Placebo condition (Table 1), whereas the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) increased from the baseline value at 30 and 60 min after drinking coffee and change in baPWV from the baseline was larger than that of Placebo at 60 min (Fig. 1)
In contrast to our hypothesis, the pulse middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAv) and the pulsatility index (PI) of MCAv did not increase immediately after drinking coffee, despite an increase in baPWV. These findings suggest that drinking coffee causes acute systemic arterial stiffening, but does not increase pulsatile stress in the cerebral circulation
Summary
Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide, but it has been suggested that chronic coffee drinking has a negative influence on cardiovascular function because of caffeine. Mostofsky et al (2010) demonstrated that the risk of ischemic stroke increased only immediately after drinking coffee (within 1 h) because a plasma caffeine concentration reaches peak at around 0.5 h after oral coffee intake (Teekachunhatean et al 2013) and caffeine acutely activates the central nervous system. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society
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