Introduction
In general, we believe that the research shows that caffeine is pretty good for you. There are a lot more positive effects than negative effects.
But, any substance taken in high amounts is going to have some negative effects for some people. Even drinking too much water can be bad for you.
Below are the most well-validated negative effects of caffeine that we have seen so far. In general, these mostly applied to patients with specific conditions, who should consider reducing their caffeine intake if it causes them to have symptoms.
Top 3 Bad Effects of Caffeine
One study suggest that caffeine may increase anxiety in the short term particularly for patients with an anxiety disorder. They found that those patients who already had an anxiety disorder had more symptoms of caffeine, including more sweating and a higher blood pressure.
Reference: Arch Gen Psychiatry.
"Caffeine produced significantly less decrease in electroencephalographic alpha wave activity, greater decrease in N1-P2 auditory evoked potential amplitude, and greater increased in skin conductance level, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, critical fusion flicker frequency, and self-ratings of anxiety and sweating in patients with GAD than in normal patients...It is concluded that patients with GAD are abnormally sensitive to caffeine and that the data support the view that panic disorder is a separable disorder from GAD."
Caffeine intake was found to correlate strongly with chronic migraines and and daily headaches. Patients who drank more caffeine were more likely to develop chronic migraines severe enough to require large amounts of pain medications.
Reference: Headache Journal
"When the active groups were compared with the episodic migraine group, the following associa-tions were found: 1) ARH: hypertension and daily consumption of caffeine; 2) CM: allergies, asthma, hypothy-roidism, hypertension, and daily consumption of caffeine; and 3) NDPH: allergies, asthma, hypothyroidism, andconsumption of alcohol more than three times per week."
Researchers found that in general, those who drank a lot more caffeine may have a slightly higher blood pressure. This was after looking through 18 trails with coffer and 7 trials with caffeine. The effects were relatively small, all less than five blood pressure points, but they were significant. As with any such study, the correlation doesn’t mean the caffeine causes higher blood pressure.
Reference: J Hypertens.
"A significant rise of 2.04 mmHg in systolic BP and 0.73 mmHg (95% CI, 0.14-1.31) in diastolic BP was found after pooling of coffee and caffeine trials. When coffee trials (n = 18, median intake: 725 ml/day) and caffeine trials (n = 7, median dose: 410 mg/day) were analysed separately, BP elevations appeared to be larger for caffeine than for coffee . Effects on HR were negligible."
More Information on Caffeine
Caffeine
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Caffeine
Caffeine has been shown to be most healthy for your body and mind. There are certain negative effects that have come up in studies, however they are mostly specific to individuals with certain conditions such as anxiety and migraine headaches.
Keys to Health
If you have migraine headaches, high blood pressure, or an anxiety disorder, you may want to think about cutting back on your coffee intake if it is causing you to have symptoms.
If you don’t have any of the above conditions or any similar symptoms, then drinking coffee or tea in moderation should be pretty good for you.