Have You Met, or Are Someone Who Drinks Tea, Because Coffee Gives Heart Palpitations?

I find this quite an interesting topic, as I've come across quite a few people who do not drink coffee at all recently as they say it gives them heart palpitations, so they drink tea instead as it has "less caffeine".

I then point out to them that tea does have a decent amount of caffeine, and depending on how much they drink, they may be having as much caffeine as a cup of coffee and the responses so far have been generally of being really surprised, shocked and confusion. The last person I met would drink a lot of bubble tea, but couldn't drink coffee.

Which gets me to thinking how much of that palpitation is psychological (perhaps tried coffee as a child and experienced an uncomfortable caffeine kick etc) or if sensitive to something else to do with the coffee.

This was an interesting article on the spruce eats https://www.thespruceeats.com/caffeine-in-coffee-tea-cola-76…
It's American volumes. 7 ounce is approx 207ml

For those too lazy to read, here are the numbers…

Espresso, single shot: 29-100 mg (often around 75 mg)
Espresso, double shot (doppio): 58-185 mg (often around 150 mg)
Decaf espresso, single shot: about 8 mg
Decaf espresso, double shot (doppio): about 16 mg
Nespresso Espresso Capsules: 55-65 mg
Nespresso Lungo Capsules: 77-89 mg

Assam black tea (FTGFOP Grade): 86 mg
Bai mu dan/China white tea: 75 mg
Chinese ti kuan yin oolong: 37 mg
Darjeeling white tea: 56 mg
Indian green tea: 59 mg
Kenyan green tea: 58 mg
Ceylon black tea (OP Grade): 58 mg

From another search…Bubble tea - 100mg to 160mg

Comments

  • +25

    you are talking about psychosomatic manifestations.

    my Dad says he is allergic to garlic.

    he can eat it in food without being aware of its presence and is fine.
    if you tell him that garlic is in the food that he is eating and he will have "symptoms" - nausea, stomach pains, mild heart palpitations.

    just like young kids who don't want to eat vegetables. you "hide" the vegetables and they will eat whatever with out an issue.

    • +61

      psychosomatic

      That boy needs therapy

    • +1

      Yes, some sort of unpleasant association with coffee. I would think mostly the taste of it, as the taste buds are more sensitive to different things as a child.

    • +2

      That's like my father in law. He thinks oral antibiotics make him sick, said they felt as bad as chemo, and acted like he was dying when he had to take antibiotics. But he did not feel a thing when he had iv antibiotics in hospital.

      • Perhaps because IV antibiotics bypass the digestive tract.
        I've had both and I can get quite nauseous by the time I reach the end of a course of oral antibiotics.
        The type of antibiotic will also make a difference.

        • Yeah your experience makes sense to me, but he was complaining about dizziness on day 1 of oral antibiotics, as bad as chemo, I mean really? So he stopped the antibiotics and happily started eating junk foods.

          • @nfr: I remember when I was a teenager the doctor gave me an antibiotic that made me vomit violently. Mum thought it was the illness making me vomit and told me to take another of the antibotics so I would get better. Soon I was vomiting again on an empty stomach. The retching was so bad, that there were blood spots on my face (I think from capillaries bursting under the skin). I went back to the doctor and got an injection of the same antibiotic.

            I've had different antibiotcs before and after that occasion without issues, but that horrible event sticks in my mind. I've never had chemo so I can't compare.

    • +14

      i have that reaction with housework

      • I have ponophobia.

        • +3

          your browser history indicates otherwise.

      • +1

        If we don't know … best to stfu in my opinion.

        Yes, if only people all did this.

      • +1

        Sounds similar to Jordan peterson and his daughter.

    • +3

      he can eat it in food without being aware of its presence and is fine.

      Ah. My missus does this with MSG.

    • +2

      psychosomatic

      addict insane?

      • +2

        Breathe the pressure!

    • I drink tea coz it makes me look smart and sophisticated

      • Not working

  • +8

    Yes I don't like coffee because I like to sleep

    • +6

      Yeah, but for a lot of us when we don't have coffee the sleep continues through the morning and the day!

      • +1

        We even look awake to most people! (Until you see anything we produce…)

    • +4

      To me it seems so strange that coffee (or other caffeine drinks) keeps people awake.

      Personally I regularly have coffee 45mins before bed and have no trouble getting to sleep.

      • +9

        I "regularly"….. that's why. Tolerance.

      • +1

        How old are you?

    • +1

      Don't drink tea or coffee for this reason.

  • +5

    He probably has other heart problems, should get a check up from a GP/Cariologist.

    • +2

      I used to drink a lot but I experience the same problem which the heart pump faster to a point I can't concentrate. I still drink during weekend. Drinking red bull doesn't have the same effect.

      GP checked and said nothing to worry as this is normal, different people react differently at different time of their life,so nothing to worry.

      • +2

        Yep, could be nothing, it doesn't hurt to get a check up though, just in case.

  • +9

    People forget that a large coffee has 2 shots of coffee in it. So be mindful when doing these comparisons.

    • -2

      Yes, I drink instant coffee or Dilmah black tea with milk all day long and there's zero difference for me.
      But I avoid takeaway coffee these days as it does give me that palpable buzz that I now find unpleasant.
      I don't need therapy.

  • +3

    It might not be the caffeine but as you hinted something else. I can drink tea all day long without issue, but if I have too much coffee over the course of the week (say 5-6 cups for the whole week) I will get visual migraines. Some have suggested that oils present in the coffee might be the cause. On the other hand if I take 100mg or so of CoQ10 each day then I can drink coffee no worries. So whatever is going on with your peeps it doesn't have to be psychosomatic.

    • Perhaps it is a sensitivity to the oils. Never even considered that one. Good point. Will make my friend pop an anti-histamine pill 30 mins before doing a coffee test on her lol

    • Ding ding ding

      Psychosomatic = god of the gaps for medicine

      "Can't figure this shit out, whelp, the patient must be nuts" sort of thing.

      Of course if could be psychosomatic, but coming to that conclusion by default cause you're run out of other ideas is a logic fail.

      • Umm sure, but I didn't claim it was psychosomatic, someone further up did though…

        • That's what the ding ding ding was about, I was agreeing and expanding on what you said.

      • Of course if could be psychosomatic, but coming to that conclusion by default cause you're run out of other ideas is a logic fail.

        It might be a logic fail, but practically it's the only option. A lot of medicine is process of elimination anyway because determinative tests can be more expensive/time-consuming than treatment.

        • That's the same as "God of the Gaps" though.

          Science hasn't figured it out yet, "God did it/it's psychosomatic"

          I have way too much personal experience (myself and family members) of supposedly good doctors missing biological issues and labelling things psychogenic. Basically, they're used car salesmen in white coats. If they'd just admit "I don't know" instead of making shit up, humanity would be better off.

          But yeah, time/money, screw people's quality of life or lost years to missed diagnoses. Poor Doctorbs hard done by.

          Edit: pre-empting an accusation of some hippy anti-science BS - medical doctors seem largely incapable of understanding published literature or statistics. They aren't scientists, and even the scientists P-hack/outcome switch their way to being published rather than find the actual truth.

          • +1

            @smashman42: I mean, Drs make good money so I'm not sympathetic that they have a hard job - they're being paid for it. But it's really just how medicine works (and really everything). Everything is probability-based, it's cost-prohibitive (not to mention often impossible) to get 100% certainty in anything, not just medicine.

            It does suck if you're part of the small group for which that approach doesn't work (because for every 99% accurate diagnosis, there'll be 1% who it's obviously wrong for), but unfortunately society and a lot of systems are designed for the 99%, not the 1%. (Other than financial systems I guess…. but that's designed for 99% of money, not people… but I digress.)

            • +1

              @HighAndDry: Sorry if I'm over-sensitive on this.

              My daughter has lost two years of her primary schooling to inept doctors that would rather threaten child protection or sectioning than do their bloody jobs - oh look, she needed surgery for a structural issue and had a severe allergy, so two overlapping sinus problems at once was too complex to understand apparently - so mental by default & parents are mental too for daring to question the quacks?

              In my own case I got given the wrong advice and treatments for over a decade of increasing disability, then finally the right advice which was the reverse of the initial advice. In both cases, no apologies, no acknowledgement, nothing.

              There's a hell of a lot of people slipping through the cracks in this sort of way. For reference, see basically every auto-immune disease ever & most of the neurological ones too until they become too advanced to deny. Huge wait times for diagnosis, sometimes decades of being told you're soft in the head, then finally in their heads they go "oh shit" and never look you in the eye again.

  • +2

    My father quit coffee years ago because of heart palpatations and now has tea with no issues. He mostly has green tea. Has the occasional coffee without issue now. It's an interesting discussion as to why other caffeine does not seem to trigger the heart issues. I wonder if there is something in coffee that builds up in the body over time and the combination triggers the symptoms.

    • For me its definitely a build up over time. If I have a coffee every day for about 3-4 months, I start having palpitations. Im currently 3 weeks into only drinking herbal tea and im now feeling much better. Ill get back on the coffee again soon, but I certainly need a break from it every now and then.

  • Have You Met, or Are Someone Who Drinks Tea, Because Coffee Gives Heart Palpitations?

    Like they deliberately want heart palpitations?

  • +4

    For those too lazy to read, here are the numbers…

    Espresso, single shot: 29-100 mg (often around 75 mg)
    Espresso, double shot (doppio): 58-185 mg (often around 150 mg)
    Decaf espresso, single shot: about 8 mg
    Decaf espresso, double shot (doppio): about 16 mg
    Nespresso Espresso Capsules: 55-65 mg
    Nespresso Lungo Capsules: 77-89 mg

    Assam black tea (FTGFOP Grade): 86 mg
    Bai mu dan/China white tea: 75 mg
    Chinese ti kuan yin oolong: 37 mg
    Darjeeling white tea: 56 mg
    Indian green tea: 59 mg
    Kenyan green tea: 58 mg
    Ceylon black tea (OP Grade): 58 mg

    From another search…Bubble tea - 100mg to 160mg

    I don't think those are right. Google says there are 11 mg of caffeine in a cup of tea.
    Looking at a second source, Huffington Post says Black tea: 30-50mg or Green tea: 30-50mg, while a Latte: 113-280mg.

    I thought it was common knowledge that coffee has much more caffeine than tea.
    Maybe it's not common knowledge in Asian countries where OP is from.
    and I don't think these tea drinkers are having 4 cups of tea instead of 1 cup of coffee, and
    even if they are it would be less a concentrated dose of the caffeine.

    • +3

      Seems to be a lot of variance in caffeine data. Would be nice if suppliers would list amount of caffeine per tea bag etc. I'm guessing tea that is steeped for a while in a pot will have higher concentration of caffeine. Yet I've noticed with my coffee sensitive friends they will have cup are cup of Chinese black tea when out with no palpitations.

      • Tea depends on a lot on how long you steep them for, and for chinese tea especially you're not supposed to steep the tea leaves too long.

      • +1

        This page on the Dilmah site claims that 80% of caffeine is extracted from tea after on minute of brewing and 90% is extracted after three minutes, so not a huge variation with extraction time.

    • +2

      "I thought it was common knowledge that coffee has much more caffeine than tea."

      It is common knowledge, but strictly speaking it is not correct knowledge as it depends entirely on the coffee and tea in question. some teas have far more than your average cup of coffee. especially things like bubble tea which have very high doses more even than many doubleshot expressos.

    • Interesting, I thought it was common knowledge that tea had approx the same, if not more, caffeine than coffee… And I'm from the UK, we love tea.

      • +4

        Tea has more caffeine per gram of plant material, however generally a cup of tea contains far less plant material than a cup of coffee, so the beverage tea contains much less caffeine than the beverage coffee. People often confuse these two facts.

    • The google reference says 11mg in 100g (100ml of water) which is 46mg of Caffeine in an 8 fl oz cup serving. The source is this USDA page which lists:

      Beverages, tea, instant, unsweetened, prepared with water

      I suspect that this instant tea might some sort of powdered preparation for making iced tea.

  • How much coffee do you drink?
    Not overweight & diet good or pizzas & maccas?
    Ever get any real exercise?

    • +1

      Ex 5 to 6 times a week. Mostly health Asian diet. Although I am partial to KFC once a week. I prob have 4 to 6 cups of coffee a day and 2 cups tea. Way above the average there but can fall asleep within a minute generally. Interestingly, when I go overseas such as Singapore, I'm lucky to have 1 cup tea and 1 coffee a day as I hate taste of the milk in Asia. Forgot to add to that I don't get any withdrawal symptoms either when I don't have it. No shakes, no headache etc, which I do find interesting, considering my intake is quite high

      • +1

        I used to drink a lot of coffee but now have cut back to no more than 3 a day after getting headaches and joint pains. Too much can cause problems as can too much of any good thing :-) especially when we get older.
        I doubt that coffee is the source of your problems now as would be your diet from what you say.
        The next thing would be exercise.. work itself is not exercise.. a regular cardio work out helped me a lot.
        Our lifestyle of sitting in front of a screen all day is not good for us.
        Push bike riding worked for me.

        • but now have cut back to no more than 3 a day

          Sheesh, if you cut back to that, no wonder. I'm trying to keep myself at 1-2 cups on weekdays, none if I can survive on weekends.

      • -7

        Health Asian diet? I haven't heard of that one before. A genuine healthy diet would actually be eating fresh local produce instead of stuff shipped from a different continent…

  • +3

    tea numbers are overstated imo.

  • Okay I just found this on the Lipton site. They answered someone's question and stated that their tea contains 40mg to 50mg of caffeine.
    This other site lists caffeine content in various different Lipton teas
    https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/lipton-tea

    So that's almost getting to the Nespresso espresso capsule caffeine amount.

    • +1

      ooops forgot to include the lipton faq link
      https://www.lipton.com/arabia/en/faqs.html

      • It's possible that if someone gets adverse reactions from drinking take-away coffee (so double-shot, etc) then that will also cause psychological links between drinking coffee and those reactions, so that they get them, or notice them more, when drinking coffee in other forms (e.g. capsule coffee) even if those other forms have less caffeine.

  • +2

    I was having headaches almost every second day and heart palpitation. I stopped coffee and switched to Chicory, I have really bad withdrawal the first week.
    Then headaches disappeared completely, but palpitations where still there.

    My heart palpitation stopped after 2 weeks of taking Seremind for anxiety. Wonder it is psychological though, because it's just lavender oil.

    • I tried chicory for a while but after seeing the sticky residues in the cup I convinced myself that, caffeine aside, it's no better for me than coffee.

      • Not sure where your bought your chicory from, no sticky residue for me. The only Chicory I like is the one from Woolies. The Coles one is tasteless

        • Eh. You're replacing one substance that's widely consumed with years of scientific literature with another more obscure substance with less consumers and less scientific literature.

          It might be beneficial, but it'd be wholly incidental and basically by luck. Still - to each their own. Even if the effects are psychosomatic, they're still effects.

    • +1

      Yep, lavender oil does absolutely nothing other than act as a placebo.

      • On the other hand, placebo effects are still objectively effects.

        • Mayaswell look for a cheaper placebo then.

  • I had frequent heart palpitations and even went to see GP for that and had a holter monitor for a day.

    Turned out not dangerous, but then I started to do my own research and read that drinking too much coffee caused palpitations. I had 3-4 cups per day.

    After that I just had 1-2 cups and palpitations basically went a way or come back only if I get my heart racing.

    At least in my case the palpitations were coffee related, or at least it seems that way.

  • +1

    You could have some underlying issue and coffee enabled a side effect. Green tea is meant to have l-Theanine which is meant to be calming. Seems "cleaner" and long lasting than coffee, which has more flavours and aromatic compounds. These could compete for absorption hence jitters etc.

  • +2

    I'm one who switched to tea after coffee affected me. I'd have coffee maybe 2 or 3 times a week and each time I noticed I'd get nervous, sweaty hands, jittery.
    Started having tea (the English way - i.e.black tea with milk) and no ill effects.

    I can have coffee once in a while but I like tea anyway.

    Interesting discussion. I've always wondered about the comparative caffeine content of tea vs coffee.

  • +3

    It highlights that our current knowledge is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more that we do not understand yet about the affects of compounds on our bodies.

    I don't get heart palpitations, but I get anxiety and trouble concentrating when I have too much caffeine. I used to drink about 6 shots a day, but these days I only drink tea with the odd single shot of decaf every few weeks. That one shot of decaf, which has less caffeine than a cup of tea gives me a definite buzz and I avoid doing difficult or frustrating tasks for 2 hours afterwards. Something about coffee gives it a much stronger effect.

    When I used to drink a lot of coffee, I noticed that very acidic or burnt coffees had a much much stronger affect. My theory is that the acidity gets through your stomach lining and the caffeine (and whatever else is in coffee) is absorbed much more quickly.

  • Like with alcohol, I find if I drink coffee on an empty stomach/dehydrated I get a dizzying rush, BUT if I drink it in between meals and I'm fully hydrated I'm okay. I think its due to a change in blood pressure or artery dilatation, and that's whats being interpreted by people as heart palpitations.

    Tea I can drink just fine, but it's also worth noting that I drink it from cheap quality tea bags (lipton and other supermarket brands). When I drink tea from a good cafe, made from leaves, it has a much stronger effect. So it might be a case of not that your friend can't drink coffee, but that she can't drink strong coffee. She should try it at half strength to test.

    FWIW, I've switched away from tea to coffee. Used to drink 5 cups of tea a day. Now I drink no tea and 3-4 cups of coffee instead.

  • Most strong coffee makes me gitterry, and like a mexican jumping bean.
    International Roast has no side effects having half teaspoon or less, and 20 cups a day. Taste is bland but I've drank it happily for 30 years.
    I doubt palpatations could be psychological or self induced, that would be a doctors opinion perhaos, not reality. Cheers.

    • 20 cups per day?!

    • I doubt palpatations could be psychological or self induced

      Considering that it's stress-related, it's completely possible to be psychological or self-induced.

  • The only time I get queezy on coffee is if I have had a lot of anti-inflammatories over a few days. Then the acid from the coffee really makes my stomach churn

  • Could be a number of things, I personally don't get heart palpitations but I get super anxiety after drinking coffee (medium size or higher, typically small I'm fine or weak). But I can usually drink tea and not have much of a problem, and I usually can have a couple cups of teas a day no problem, but 2 coffees and my anxiety is through the roof. Have no idea if its just a brain thing, but I noticed it afterwards (kept getting large coffees and kept getting anxiety and finally put the correlation together). So I wonder if its the mixture, or if its just me.

    • Identical for me. I used to drink a latte a day but don't now, and my stress is at zero.

  • +2

    I don't drink coffee and only drink tea because I'm English.

    • +1

      Hahaha, this comment makes me feel like breaking out in a rousing rendition of God Save the Queen. And I only know four words of that…

      • +1

        There's nothing that makes me feel more patriotic than a cup of tea and the football (soccer), other than that I've been here too long to care about anything else.

  • +2

    Instant coffee gives me heart palpitations. All other forms of coffee (and tea) are fine. I suspect I am allergic to something in the instant coffee.

  • I'll put my hand up as someone who has a different reaction to coffee than I do to other caffeinated beverages.

    I used to drink a lot of coke, with no negative side effects. I can drink a red bull or energy drink without feeling too strong of an effect. Can pop a No-doz and feel nothing. I drink tea regularly.

    Coffee, on the other hand gives me an intense rush, makes me feel jittery, and can even make my hands shake. It's been years since I've had a coffee as it doesn't agree with me.

    I'd be really curious to know why I react like that to coffee, as it doesn't appear to be caffeine related. I'm thinking there's something else in coffee that gives me that reaction.

  • +1

    I avoid coffee as it makes me feel dehydrated. I end up guzzling down a lot more water if I have had a coffee. Not sure if physiological or psychosomatic but that's the way it is.

    I have sometimes experienced elevated heart rate after a coffee. Note: I didn't measure my heart rate so can't prove it.

    I do drink tea but limited to 2 a day.

  • +1

    Here's a link to a publishing on the composition of coffee. I guess you could check each "component" and see if those can cause palpitations etc

    It's a hefty read for a Sunday morning lol

    https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/…

    • Nothing biological is that simple. It could be a combination of components. Could be one component increasing metabolic uptake of caffeine. Etc.

  • +1

    Is that coffee in your cup or are you just happy to see me?

  • +2

    My sister has that problem and doesn't have caffeine for that very reason. Her version of a cup of tea borders on homoeopathic. She basically waives the bag over the cup and that's it.

    Being overly reactive to caffeine is a thing. Caffeine only works because it's essentially adrenaline on a chemical level. Will it kill you? Unlikely. Will it give you physiological symptoms that make you think you're having a heart attack? No problem whatsoever.

    People are very dismissive of psychosomatic presentations (and given some of the histrionics people have, that certainly has some founding) but the simple fact is that your brain literally cannot tell the difference between a physical symptom and an actual threat. If your heart freaks out then you will likely freak out too.

  • +1

    I used to have heart palpitations but the doctor got me onto trimetazidine and now I'm a world champion.

  • +5

    Tea has l-Theanine (which coffee doesn't) which has a 'levelling' effect

    https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324120.php

    • +1

      Yep, I take L-Theanine tablets and it takes the edge off strong coffee. Can drink it no problems and still enjoy the positive effects of caffeine without the jitters.

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