Self Help

Drinking alcoholic beverages can increase your risk of developing high blood pressure. According to recent scientific studies, alcohol consumption might be responsible for as many as 5 to 7 percent of all cases of high blood pressure and up to 25 percent of the cases referred to as essential hypertension, high blood pressure with no known, specific cause. Scientists estimate that alcohol is probably responsible for as many as 11 percent of the cases of high blood pressure in men alone, making alcohol a significant risk factor.

The relationship between high blood pressure and alcohol is well-documented. Although scientists are still studying the effects of alcohol on blood pressure, many researchers believe that alcohol raises blood pressure by directly causing a constriction (or narrowing) of blood vessels, which makes it harder for the blood to squeeze through.

Alcohol also seems to increase the blood vessels’ sensitivity to certain chemicals in the blood that can cause vessel constriction, leading to higher blood pressure. Alcohol stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the central nervous system responsible for the fight-or-flight reaction. Stimulation of this part of the nervous system results in higher blood pressure.

Alcohol also seems to trigger the release of certain hormones (known as adrenocordcoid hormones) from the adrenal glands that can cause higher blood pressure. And, finally, alcohol makes blood pressure sky-rocket because it damages the liver and kidneys and causes fluid buildup.

According to one study, one or two drinks a day didn’t affect blood pressure, but excessive drinking caused blood pressure to rise dramatically. Alcohol studies have varied in size from less than 100 to more than 80,000 volunteers, and almost all of the studies have shown that blood pressure rises when you drink alcohol (at least when you have three drinks or more per day).

The results of one clinical study on 16 men with high blood pressure levels who were heavy drinkers (six to seven drinks per day) showed that blood pressure levels went down significantly after the men stopped drinking alcohol. The study also demonstrated that the men experienced a prompt rise in blood pressure after resuming their alcoholic habits. Another study conducted on 46 men with normal blood pressure levels tested the effects of alcohol on blood pressure by substituting the men’s regular beer with low-alcohol-content beer for six weeks.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School confirmed that blood pressure in women also is affected by heavy drinking. Women who drink two mixed drinks or three glasses of wine every day increase their risk of developing high blood pressure by 40 percent. The risk jumps to 90 percent in women who drink more alcohol than that each day.