Alcohol Intake and Blood Pressure Levels: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Nonexperimental Cohort Studies Hypertension

Dumont 2010 measured blood pressure during the study period, but study authors did not provide the before and after measurement of SBP. They mentioned only that change in blood pressure was not significant. The aim of Fazio 2004 was to determine the effects of alcohol on blood flow volume and velocity. Study authors mentioned only that acute ethanol administration caused a transitory increase in BP at 20 minutes.

Tome‐Carneiro 2013 published data only

The CDC also states that to reduce alcohol-related health risks, adults of legal drinking age should limit their alcohol consumption to two drinks or less a day for men and one drink or less for women. Second, lack of representation of the female population was notable in the included studies. Only four studies included almost equal numbers of male and female participants (Buckman 2015; Foppa 2002; Maufrais 2017; Zeichner 1985). Moreover, none of the studies reported male and female data separately.

YftachGepner 2015 published data only

Drinking alcohol makes you more likely to experience these side effects and for them to be more severe. Some studies suggest low amounts of alcohol may provide health benefits. However, experts believe these effects may result from differences between people who drink moderately and those who do not.

Brewer 2010 published data only

In addition, alcohol may attenuate ischemia–reperfusion injury by activating protein kinase C epsilon (PKCɛ) (Walker et al. 2013). Activation of PKCɛ may protect the myocardium against ischemia–reperfusion injury by stimulating the opening of mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channels. Discuss your alcohol intake with your healthcare provider and make lifestyle changes as recommended. A 2018 study, echoed by the World Health Organization (WHO), concluded that no amount of alcohol is safe for consumption, as alcohol leads to a loss of healthy life. Drinking frequently or binging on a large amount of alcohol in a small period of time can lead to health problems. However, other research also suggests that alcohol increases blood pressure.

Clinical Trials for Kidney Disease

Our end points were the mean differences over time of systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), plotted according to baseline alcohol intake, by using a dose-response 1-stage meta-analytic methodology. All these conclusions are based on findings of observational studies. Several RCTs have reported the magnitude of effect of alcohol on blood pressure, but because those trials are small, their findings are not sufficient to justify a strong conclusion. In 2005, McFadden and colleagues conducted a systematic review of RCTs, which investigated the haemodynamic effects of daily consumption of alcohol (McFadden 2005).

• 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.
• Overall, our review indicates that the relationship between alcohol intake and BP is almost linear with no evidence of a threshold for the association.
• Alcohol withdrawal reverses the adverse impact of alcohol on endothelial function, with rapid normalization of the BP.
• Or making a permanent switch to lower alcohol alternatives can be a sustainable approach to cutting down in the longer term, if you’re not ready to give up alcohol.
• Results from another meta-analysis of 12 cohort studies found a similar dose−response relationship between alcohol consumption and HTN for males.
• These mechanisms contribute to the myocyte cellular changes that lead to intrinsic cell dysfunction, such as sarcoplasmic reticular dysfunction and changes in intracellular calcium handling and myocyte loss.

Overall, these limitations might explain some of the heterogeneity for our estimates, especially for DBP. In addition, the quality of the studies that met our eligibility requirements was quite variable, with only 2 of them being categorized as having a low risk of bias. Finally, the nonexperimental design of the studies did not allow us to exclude the possibility of residual confounding, although a relevant bias due to key unmeasured confounders did not appear to be likely.

Conen 2008 published data only

A J-shaped relationship for females showed protective effects at or below consumption levels of 15 g/day (Taylor et al. 2009). These data highlight how gender may be an important modifier of the alcohol threshold level and can shape the alcohol benefit−risk relationship. Additional steps you can take to meet your blood pressure goals may include eating heart-healthy and low-sodium meals, quitting smoking, being active, getting enough sleep, and taking your medicines as prescribed. You should also limit alcoholic drinks—no more than two per day for men and one per day for women—because consuming too many alcoholic beverages raises blood pressure. Some studies suggest low amounts of alcohol may help reduce blood pressure or risk of heart disease.

How to reduce your drinking

Assuming that the low SEs of MDs reported in Stott 1987 and Barden 2013 are errors and are not reliable, we replaced these measures with the average SE of MD from the rest of the included studies. We (ST and CT) assessed the risk of bias of included studies independently using the Cochrane risk of bias tool (version 1) according to Chapter 8 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions for the following domains (Higgins 2011). Each study had to meet strict eligibility criteria, allowing researchers to focus on participants with no previous history of cardiovascular disease. T​his research was a dose-response meta-analysis of seven different nonexperimental cohort studies.

I’ve read that red wine is heart healthy — can I drink as much as I’d like?

Alcohol also causes damage to the liver over time, especially if you drink too much. For a lot of people on long-term medications, alcohol can make the drug less effective. Those who drink regularly and consume more than the lower risk guidelines are how does alcohol affect blood pressure likely to be advised to cut down or stop drinking completely. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways. Your gut microbiome is a hotbed of bacteria that help keep your digestive system happy and healthy.