How Does Alcohol Affect Blood Pressure? Risk Factors & Dangers

The amount of alcohol required to affect blood pressure can vary from person to person. Factors such as age, overall health, genetics, and individual tolerance levels all play a role. However, it’s important to note that even moderate alcohol consumption can have an impact on blood pressure.

Increased Risk of Hypertension

There are several possible mechanisms through which alcohol can raise the blood pressure as shown in Figure 1. Oar Health offers medication FDA-approved for the treatment of alcohol problems. At the heart of Oar Health’s treatment is naltrexone, an FDA-approved medication clinically proven to help people drink less or quit entirely. Whether your goal is moderation or sobriety, Oar Health is here to help you navigate the journey with dignity and ease. The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, in particular, has been shown to be highly effective in lowering blood pressure. To understand how alcohol can cause high Alcoholics Anonymous blood pressure, we must first explore how alcohol interacts with the body.

• It has been shown in multiple studies that drinking excessively over a long period of time can raise blood pressure anywhere from 2 to 10 points and could be potentially very dangerous with those with heart conditions.
• Furthermore, alcohol can directly damage the inner lining of blood vessel walls, making them less elastic and more prone to narrowing.
• Activation of PKCɛ may protect the myocardium against ischemia–reperfusion injury by stimulating the opening of mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channels.
• T​his research was a dose-response meta-analysis of seven different nonexperimental cohort studies.
• If it was appropriate to combine cross‐over trials with other trials, we used the recommended generic inverse variance approach of meta‐analysis.
• Finally, in studies of people from certain Eastern European countries, investigators have failed to find a cardioprotective effect with any level of ethanol consumption (Britton and McKee 2000).

Alcohol And Your Heart: Happy Hour And Hypertension

On average, drinkers consume 32.8 grams of pure alcohol per day, and beer (34.3%) is the most consumed alcoholic beverage (WHO 2018). In the United States, 14 grams of pure alcohol is considered as one standard drink or one unit, and the maximum daily limit for men and women is four and three drinks, respectively (NIAAA 2017). Exceeding this limit increases the risk of cardiovascular, hepatic, and nervous system disorders (Bellentani 1997; Fuchs 2001; Gao 2011; Lieber 1998; McCullough 2011; Nutt 1999; Welch 2011). Also, multiple studies have found associations between consumption of alcoholic beverages and specific cancers (Kushi 2012; Seitz 2007). Abuse of alcohol resulted in approximately 3 million deaths worldwide and 132.6 million disability‐adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2016 (WHO 2018). Investigators have used a variety of noninvasive tests to evaluate the acute effects of alcohol consumption on myocardial function and hemodynamics in healthy humans.

Alcohol’s Effects on the Cardiovascular System

Often called the “silent killer,” high blood pressure typically shows no symptoms until a severe event occurs, making regular blood pressure readings crucial for early detection. Regular moderate alcohol use of 30 g per day can significantly increase your risk of hypertension, and drinking alcohol regularly can have other negative effects on your heart. Ultimately, if you don’t already drink wine, it is not recommended to start solely for its supposed heart benefits. If you do choose to enjoy red wine, moderation is key—typically defined as one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men, though even these guidelines can vary based on individual circumstances. Developed by the American Heart Association in 2023, PREVENTTM is a tool to estimate 10- and 30-year risk of cardiovascular disease in people ages years. It includes variables such as age, sex, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other health indicators, including zip code as a measure for social drivers of health, the American Heart Association says.

The associations between drinking and CV diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, and cardiomyopathy have been studied extensively and are outlined in this review. Although many behavioral, genetic, and biologic variants influence the interconnection between alcohol use and CV disease, dose and pattern of alcohol consumption seem to modulate this most. Low-to-moderate alcohol use may mitigate certain mechanisms such as risk and hemostatic factors affecting atherosclerosis and inflammation, pathophysiologic processes integral to most CV disease. Both the negative and positive effects of alcohol use on particular CV conditions are presented here. The review concludes by suggesting several promising avenues for future research related to alcohol use and CV disease.

Drinking too much alcohol—such as binge drinking (five or more drinks for men or four or more drinks for women in one sitting)—causes a temporary spike in blood pressure. Over time, heavy alcohol use can lead to sustained high blood pressure (hypertension). Even moderate alcohol consumption can cause short-term increases in blood pressure readings. Data derived from systematic reviews and meta-analyses suggest that alcohol-dose and CV-health relationships differ for various CV conditions. For example, certain levels of alcohol consumption that lower risk for CHD may increase it for other CV conditions, such as stroke. In addition, data from studies using new research methods, including Mendelian randomization, suggest that the relationship between low-to-moderate alcohol consumption and cardioprotection merits more critical appraisal (Holmes et al. 2014).

Systolic and diastolic blood pressure both increase over time with alcohol intake, according to a report published Aug. 14. The data found that those who avoid drinking alcohol have the lowest risk of hypertension, and that those who reduce their intake by at least 50% experienced healthy blood pressure levels. Heart rate was increased following alcohol consumption regardless of the dose of alcohol.

Cheyne 2004 published data only

• As with many substances, the poison is in the dose, which means — it depends on how much, your size, gender and age.
• For anyone concerned about heart health, the question “Will alcohol raise blood pressure?
• We did not consider the lack of blinding of participants as a downgrading factor for certainty of evidence because we do not think that it affected the outcomes of this systematic review.
• Merle Myerson is a board-certified cardiologist with specialties in sports medicine, lipids, women’s health and prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Working with your cardiologist and focusing on your lifestyle – like the foods you eat, exercising, and avoiding alcohol – are key, Goldberg says. An occasional drink may not make a significant difference if your high blood pressure is under good control with medication and/or healthy habits like diet and exercise. If you currently have high blood pressure, a doctor may recommend reducing your alcohol intake or avoiding alcohol altogether. It may affect the level of the medicine in the body or cause more side effects. Heavy alcohol users who cut back to average drinking can lower their top number in a blood pressure reading by about 5.5 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and their bottom number by about 4 mm Hg. Recognizing a potential alcohol use disorder and seeking assistance can be a critical step in preventing high blood pressure and other health complications.

• Some research suggests these compounds may offer benefits such as improved cholesterol levels or reduced inflammation.
• Because women could be affected differently by alcohol than men, future RCTs in women are needed.
• Although highly individualized and dose dependent, alcohol use also can increase bleeding time (i.e., taking longer to develop a clot)(Salem and Laposata 2005).

Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers and the Association’s overall financial information are available here. Although none of the participants had high blood pressure when they enrolled in the studies, their blood pressure measurements at the beginning did have an impact on the alcohol findings. Laffin recommends that patients with borderline or blood pressure and alcohol uncontrolled high blood pressure at least cut back on alcohol if they’re trying different blood pressure meds or want to treat it with lifestyle changes alone.

MAPKs are activated in response to stressful stimuli and help regulate apoptosis. There also is desensitization of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, which can mitigate ischemia–reperfusion injury (Walker et al. 2013). In addition, alcohol may attenuate ischemia–reperfusion injury by activating protein kinase C epsilon (PKCɛ) (Walker et al. 2013).