Tea (chai) and blood pressure?

Gardener972

Does drinking that strong chai raise your blood pressure? Mine's creeping up there and I've read that caffeine raises it. Are there any ayurvedic remedies that will help as I really do want some chai in the mornings!!

Aishah

Maybe it's possible - I drink about 4 cups of chai in the day and normally my bp is perfectly all right. I think your one cup wouldn't really have a lot of effect, isn't coffee more caffeine than tea? Also I believe tea is good as a cancer preventative - but this may only be green tea. I'm not sure whether chai would work the same way.

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Sama

coffee absolutely has more caffeine than tea. and as for high blood pressure you really have to look at the total picture of what you are eating, your lifestyle, etc.. you can't just look at one thing and say that is what's causing high BP.

find out what the cause is first before you treat the symptoms.

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Nick-H

I think current opinion is pretty much in favour of tea as being healthy. The latest thing I read was that it was better for you than plain water, although I know a few people that would disagree with that!

When it comes to chai, however, we have to remember the additional quantity of milk that we are consuming, and, for many of us, the sugar as well. I used to take my English-style (a little cold milk) tea with no sugar, but, but my chai has 1tsp per cup.

So, tea is good for you; Additional dairy produce, debatable; Additional refined sugar (and just try and find unrefined here), bad.

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PeakXV

Anything with caffeine in it can cause 'spikes' to your BP. This rise can be enhanced/amplified in hot weather. I've heard that there are some people who react adversly to even small amounts of caffeine intake - I guess a sort of allergic reaction like peanuts etc.

The sugary-sweet of chai combined with the caffeine might act as a catalyst for it all as well .... or not.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Aishah

Caffeine in hot weather is a definite no for me - except for chai which I cut down at that time anyway. I love coffee and indulge that habit in the winter time (but it's only one cup a day made with my new expresso machine - frothy latte type!) When I have the coffee I have one less chai - in all, around 3 cups of chai and 1 cup of coffee throughout the day. Chai is made with hardly any sugar and less milk - ginger chai in winter and cardamon chai in summer. Summer I have only 2 cups of chai for the day, no coffee. BP not affected by this. Milk is o.k. for me too.
As YogaGal has posted it is an all over lifestyle sort of thing;
healthy eating, exercise, and lack of tension are all factors in maintaining normal BP I believe.

Nick-H

Our chai is sweet and milky! just under 50% full-cream milk.

I cannot drink coffee: it makes me feel shaky and panicky, which is a shame, as I also love the flavour

karuna

I wonder if there's any truth in that story that hot drinks are good in hot weather because they make you sweat, which helps you cool down.

Reading that back I can see several problems with that notion....*goes off to Google*

Nick-H

Probably not, because in these temperatures sweating is going to happen anyway.

I don't find iced drinks comfortable though --- and I hate cold showers.

PeakXV

Hot Drinks are great on a cold winter's day and cold drinks are better to cool your system down on a hot summer's day. At least that's what I was always told - too hot though & you'll scald your mouth - too cold and you'll get that freeze brain thing happening.

In India they are constantly bringing me heaps of (unfortunately) warm water, upon request for a drink, on the tennis court - which according to ayurvedic practises - suppose to 'merge' with the system better or something ....

however I don't think it applies to all people/races and their extremely different metabolisms ..... because frankly warm water after a hot/humid game of sports does nothing for me other than inducing that nauseous feeling.

Nick-H

I think it is something you get used to, maybe part of the acclimatisation process.

Years ago I would found warm water disgusting, but now, the bottle that sits in the car gets pretty hot and I find it ok.

In the hotter months, though, we'll keep a bottle in the fridge, and take it out in an insulated cover.

Gardener972

While in India, I drank room temp. water all the time and once in a restaurant they brought me refrigerated water... they assumed that because I'm an American I'd want COLD water. It was repulsive to me. I got used to drinking room temp. water. Room temp. water is better for your system anyway, though I'm not so sure about HOT water.

Kabeer

Its a wrong perception that tea raises blood pressure,instead Coffee lowers it down.Tea is a Healthy drink,which slimulates your central nervous system.I drink it atleast 10 cups a day,I have no BP problem.There is one more advantage with tea,it nourishes your skin.

Nick-H

I don't disagree with your assertion about tea, but I do disagree with your logicThere was a time when I could have said, I smoke twenty cigarettes a day, I have no health problem. It didn't last.

PeakXV

Certainly the influence of water temperature has been well documented in human athletes. And after exercise they overwhelmingly prefer/drink vast quantities of cool water, in comparison to water at temps at/above ambient temperature.
Cool/cold water ingested during and after exercise can act, not only as a rehydrant, but as a heat sink to lower the core body temperature. So if it's healthy for them - it probably should be healthy for the average budget traveller.

I remember as a kid taking the base of the cold soft drink bottle and passing it over my wrists and across the back of the neck to get some added 'cooling assistance' out of it before actually consuming the drink itself.