Ways Alcohol Affects Your Heart Cleveland Clinic

In fact, over the long term, Blacks appear more prone to BP elevations than Whites or Asians. In one study, the risk for high BP among men increased by a fifth with 1-2 drinks but by half and three-fourths with 3-4 and 5 or more drinks a day. Women failed to show an increased risk at low dosages, but above two drinks a day, they had a 42% increase in risk.

• While blood pressure medicine can help to reduce blood pressure, combining blood pressure medicine with alcohol creates its own set of risks and is generally not recommended.
• Women failed to show an increased risk at low dosages, but above two drinks a day, they had a 42% increase in risk.
• But alcohol can lead to your heart rate temporarily jumping up in speed, and if it goes over 100 beats per minute, it can cause a condition called tachycardia.
• As always, follow your doctor’s instructions and keep up with regular check-ups to ensure your strategy is working as it should.
• People who drink heavily nearly always have high blood pressure, and this can lead to other side effects, like fatty liver disease and heart disease.

Most importantly, masked hypertension, where patients are hypertensive at home but not in the doctor’s office, is as serious a health risk as sustained hypertension. Hypertension is rising in prevalence due to the rising mean age of the population as well as due to the increased prevalence of poor dietary patterns and other lifestyle factors. Therefore, potential interventions could target weight loss, a sedentary lifestyle, appropriate sodium/potassium intake changes, smoking, and excessive alcohol intake. If you have high blood pressure, avoid alcohol or drink alcohol only in moderation. For healthy adults, that means up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks a day for men. The last thing you want is for that casual drink after work or glass of wine at dinner to negatively impact your heart health.

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Many people don’t realize they have hypertension until they have it measured because early high blood pressure doesn’t bring on troublesome symptoms. For example, some people who are on cholesterol-lowering medicines may experience muscle aches when they drink alcohol. Because alcohol and cholesterol medicine both are processed through your liver, they are, in a sense, competing for clearance.

If a person has concerns that they or someone they know might have a dependency on alcohol, they should seek professional advice and support as soon as they can. Individuals who do not experience withdrawal symptoms will likely see the positive effects of giving up alcohol shortly after doing so. Dr. Liji Thomas is an OB-GYN, who graduated from the Government Medical College, University of Calicut, Kerala, in 2001. Liji practiced as a full-time https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-does-alcohol-affect-your-blood-pressure/ consultant in obstetrics/gynecology in a private hospital for a few years following her graduation. She has counseled hundreds of patients facing issues from pregnancy-related problems and infertility, and has been in charge of over 2,000 deliveries, striving always to achieve a normal delivery rather than operative. “Alcohol consumption might affect left ventricular diastolic properties, even in nonalcoholic patients,” say the researchers.

The Dire Consequences of High Blood Pressure

Because our search identified randomized and non-randomized studies, we tested whether differences were present in SBP or DBP based on this aspect of study design. We also evaluated the possibility of publication bias in the observed data, that is, the selective publication of results with statistically significant findings. All analyses were performed using STATA version 7.0 (STATA Corp., College Station, TX). Generally speaking, moderate drinking—two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women—is safe for most people, but regular alcohol intake can increase your blood pressure.

Interestingly, in the one study that stratified groups by alcohol intake,30 the group with a higher baseline alcohol intake had higher BP after controlled alcohol intake. Instead, the change in BP, regardless of measurement technique, was the measurement from which conclusions were drawn. To accomplish the first aim, we determined fixed- and random-effects summaries of the data for SBP and DBP. All studies were of a cross-over design, making the outcome measure of interest the mean within-subject difference in BP between measurements after alcohol consumption versus after non-ethanol control consumption. In the fixed-effects summary, we took a weighted average of the within-study mean differences, with weights equal to the inverse of the variance of that within-study difference in means.

Guidelines for Drinking Alcohol For Blood Pressure Regulation

If cutting back on alcohol is hard for you to do on your own, ask your health care professional about getting help. Dr. Jamie Winn received his Doctor of Pharmacy in 2002 from the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy, Columbia, SC. © Copyright 2023 Healthgrades Marketplace, LLC, Patent US Nos. 7,752,060 and 8,719,052. You can meet with your K Health doctor from the comfort of your own home via the K Health app, all while knowing that you’re getting individualized and expert care. Almost 72% of these participants, who were initially categorized as hypertensive, were no longer considered so after giving up alcohol for a month.

• Alcohol consumption guidelines define moderate drinking as one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men.
• This can cause the medications to stay active in your blood for longer while your body is processing alcohol, which can increase the effects of the medications.
• If someone isn’t sure whether they should combine alcohol with their blood pressure medication, they should speak to their doctor or pharmacist to obtain additional information.
• Cortisol increases the release of catecholamines, which are chemicals in the body that help regulate many processes and help keep the body functioning as it should.

The liver must divert its resources to metabolizing alcohol, making it process other medicines more slowly. This can cause the medications to stay active in your blood for longer while your body is processing alcohol, which can increase the effects of the medications. The information provided by AddictionHelp.com is not a substitute for professional medical advice. View our editorial content guidelines to learn how we create helpful content with integrity and compassion. Reducing or quitting alcohol intake can help lower blood pressure back to normal levels, though it may take some time to see improvement.

Additionally, people who engage in heavy drinking or binge drinking are at a higher risk of experiencing adverse effects on their blood pressure. High blood pressure can significantly increase cardiovascular risks such as your risk of stroke, heart attack, heart disease, heart rate abnormalities, or heart failure. You should never consider wine or any other alcohol as a way to lower your heart disease risk. And, in fact, the study also showed that drinking one or fewer drinks per day was related to the lowest likelihood of dying from a stroke. However, Dr. Cho points out that more recent data shows that there may be no amount of alcohol that is truly safe. “The myth that wine is beneficial for heart health is no longer true,” she states.

One study found that three glasses of nonalcoholic red wine a day over a month led to a significant drop in blood pressure in men with heart disease risk factors. But men who drank red wine with alcohol, or 3 ounces of gin, had no change in their blood pressure. Researchers think that the alcohol in the wine weakens any antioxidant benefit to blood pressure. The link between moderate alcohol use and blood pressure drop has become more controversial in recent years. It may be true, for example, that people who drink limited amounts of alcohol may also be more likely to engage in other healthy behaviors that lower their risk of hypertension.