Coffee Interaction With the Antihypertensive Drug Felodipine

Coffee is a globally popular beverage. More than half of the United States population spends an estimated $ 40 billion on the purchase of coffee each year. Personal consumption habits can vary. For example, the frequency of ingestion ranged from 59% for every day to 8% for less than one day per week consumption in one survey. In the case of occasional consumption, coffee can markedly elevate blood pressure in normotensive and hypertensive individuals. This pressor effect can occur with a caffeine dose of 200 - 250 mg, which can be found 2 - 3 cups of coffee. A major active constituent in coffee is caffeine, which is the most widely used pharmacological substance in the world.

Drug therapy plays a major role in the management of hypertension. However, the interaction between coffee or caffeine and blood pressure lowering drugs has been assessed in only three clinical studies that were reported more than three decades ago.

We conducted a comprehensive interaction study involving a commonly ingested amount of a particular Colombian coffee and felodipine in healthy middle-aged men and women. Peripheral (brachial) and central (aortic) hemodynamics and caffeine and felodipine pharmacokinetics were evaluated.