NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drinking at least a cup of coffee a day may cause a short-term spike in blood pressure, but it is unlikely to lead to chronic hypertension, researchers report.

"Coffee drinking did appear to have a small, long-term effect on blood pressure, but it did not materially raise the risk of developing hypertension," lead author Dr. Michael J. Klag, director of the division of general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, told Reuters Health.

Previous research has found that drinking coffee can cause a slight increase in blood pressure, but researchers were unclear whether this effect would lead in the long run to persistent high blood pressure, or hypertension.

The body's cardiovascular system seems to have the ability to adapt somewhat to coffee consumption, Klag said. "After 4 or 5 days of drinking coffee, the effect on heart rate and blood pressure gets smaller," he noted. "But it does not go totally away."

The researchers tracked the coffee consumption and blood pressures of more than 1,000 former medical students for over three decades to determine whether coffee had any long-term effects on blood pressure. The findings are reported in the March 25th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The investigators found that those who drank a cup of coffee a day did experience a small increase in blood pressure. However, after taking factors that raise blood pressure into account, such as cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, family history, body weight and exercise, Klag's team found that coffee drinking did not significantly contribute to the development of chronic hypertension.

Still, because previous research has found that abstaining from coffee can lower blood pressure among people with hypertension, Klag said that coffee lovers with high blood pressure may be better off without their daily fix. "I advise patients to give up coffee and other caffeinated beverages for 2 weeks or so to see if it helps their blood pressure," he noted.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2002;162: 657-662.

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