Alcohol and Blood Pressure: What to Know

The magnitude of the effects of alcohol on blood pressure and heart rate varies, based possibly on genetic factors and on the amount of alcohol consumed. We classified seven studies as having high risk of bias (Agewall 2000; Bau 2011; Dumont 2010; Fazio 2004; Karatzi 2013; Maufrais 2017; Van De Borne 1997). Agewall 2000 measured blood pressure upon arrival of participants and did not measure blood pressure after the intervention. The aim of Bau 2011 was to determine the effects of alcohol on heart rate variability, so SBP was not measured in this study. Dumont 2010 measured blood pressure during the study period, but study authors did not provide the before and after measurement of SBP.

• Dietary modifications often play a major role, and consuming some healthy drinks as a part of your diet can help reduce your blood pressure.
• While alcohol certainly has some negative health effects, there can also be advantages to moderate consumption.
• Full-fat dairy contains palmitic acid, which blocks signals that relax your blood vessels and allow free blood flow.
• Normally, it has an extremely low alcohol content — so much that it’s not classified as an alcoholic beverage.
• The linkage reported in many of these studies may be due to other lifestyle factors rather than alcohol.

While beans themselves are heart-healthy and can help reduce blood pressure, the canned variety is usually loaded with salt. You can still eat canned beans, but reduce the sodium by rinsing them for about 10 seconds under lukewarm water, and then draining them for about two minutes. You’ll cut sodium by up to 40 percent, but not the other heart-healthy vitamins and minerals.

One Drink to Limit: Alcohol

Eat prunes as a snack, in your baked goods, or add the juice to your smoothies. Remember that it does have a laxative effect, so go easy on the amount you consume and introduce it slowly to your diet. We graded the overall certainty of evidence using the GRADE approach via GRADEpro GDT software (GRADEpro 2014); we formulated summary of findings (SoF) tables. As planned, we conducted sensitivity analyses to see if there was any significant difference between effect estimates of outcomes given by the fixed‐effect model and the random‐effects model, when substantial heterogeneity was present.

Alcohol consistently increases heart rate at all times within 24 hours of consumption. Consuming drinks like tomato juice, beet juice, pomegranate juice, and skimmed milk as part of a balanced, healthy diet can help you manage high blood pressure. Stress¹⁴ can trigger a temporary blood pressure spike and may encourage you to make unhealthy lifestyle choices, like being inactive, consuming alcohol, and eating unhealthy foods.

Barden 2017 published data only

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).

• But for now, let’s take a look at why exactly alcohol affects weight loss.
• Something as easy as expanding and evolving your beverage intake can help to keep your blood pressure at a healthy level.
• Most of the included studies had similar risk of bias across all domains except for performance bias and detection bias, for which risk arises from blinding of participants, personnel, and outcome assessors.
• Find up-to-date information on how common high blood pressure is, who is most at risk, and more.
• This doesn’t mean you can no longer enjoy your morning coffee or favorite caffeinated soft drink.

To get control of blood pressure, it’s best not to focus on one specific food in particular, but to focus on an overall healthy dietary pattern instead. “Foods like fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy are rich in micronutrients that work how does alcohol affect your blood pressure together to regulate blood pressure,” she says. They also replace more harmful foods that can elevate blood pressure, like salty snacks. Drinking too much alcohol has been strongly linked to a higher risk of many serious health conditions.

Characteristics of excluded studies [ordered by study ID]

However, if you are going to drink, having red wine in moderation is a healthier choice than other alcoholic drinks. While drinking too much beer is definitely harmful, one study found that women who drank a single beer each day over a 6-month period had fewer perimenopause symptoms. But you can also get phytoestrogens from foods like tofu and beans without consuming alcohol. In one study, two groups of people switched to a Mediterranean diet rich in whole grains, nuts, healthy oils, vegetables, and fruits. While both groups saw improvements to their cholesterol levels, those who drank the red wine had significantly better results.

Although eligible studies included East Asian, Latino, and Caucasian populations, they lacked African, South Asian, and Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander representation. Large RCTs including both hypertensive and normotensive participants with various ethnic backgrounds are required to understand the effects of alcohol on blood pressure and heart rate based on ethnicity and the presence of hypertension. More https://ecosoberhouse.com/ RCTs are needed to study the effects of low‐dose alcohol to better delineate the dose‐response effects of alcohol on BP and heart rate. RCTs with measurements more than 24 hours after alcohol consumption are needed to see how long the effect of high‐dose acute alcohol consumption lasts. We are aware of one systematic review on effects of alcohol on blood pressure that was published in 2005 (McFadden 2005).

The Best Types of Alcohol for High Blood Pressure

Tequila is also agave-based, and it shares the low-sugar, low-calorie benefits of other clear liquors. According to studies on mice, tequila may also be better for blood sugar balance1 than other alcoholic beverages thanks to a naturally occurring sugar in the agave plant that serves as a dietary fiber. If you have high blood pressure, ask a doctor or healthcare professional whether you should limit or stop drinking caffeinated beverages. With that said, it might not be the best time to start drinking coffee if you don’t already. But according to a 2017 literature review of 34 studies, moderate coffee consumption is safe, and perhaps even beneficial for both healthy people and those with high blood pressure. Growing evidence suggests that drinking one glass of tomato juice per day may promote heart health.

So, it was not appropriate to conduct a separate meta‐analysis based on that population. We also calculated SD if 95% CI, P value, or t value was reported in the included studies, according to Chapter 7 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Higgins 2011). If we were not able to get SD from the study authors or calculate SD from the values mentioned above, we imputed SD using the following hierarchy (listed from highest to lowest) (Musini 2014). Alcohol has been reported to diminish baroreceptor sensitivity, which is a key factor in regulating blood pressure (Abdel‐Rahman 1985; Rupp 1996).

What types of alcohol are worst for high blood pressure?

Thus, in our review, we used up to 30 g alcohol intake for men and up to 20 g alcohol intake for women as a moderate dose, and above this limit as a high dose. In studies where sex‐specific results were not provided, we categorised dose based on the dominating sex in terms of study participation. If you’re worried about your blood pressure, it’s time you said hello to this sweet ruby-red fruit. Loaded with potassium and other heart-healthy nutrients, pomegranate juice has three times the antioxidant activity of green tea or red wine. It’s no surprise, then, that a 2017 review published in Pharmacological Research found that regularly drinking pomegranate juice can significantly reduce blood pressure.

It was not studied for longer than four weeks, so the long-term and overall health impacts are still unclear. Although prune juice is popularly known as a natural laxative, it may also have a heart protective effect. One study showed that raw prune and prune juice intake daily for eight weeks reduced blood pressure in subjects with prehypertension, serum cholesterol, and LDL.

Worst Alcoholic Beverages for High Blood Pressure, Say Dietitians

A dose of 14 grams of pure alcohol/ethanol or less was defined as a low dose of alcohol. We excluded 450 trials after reviewing the full‐text articles, and we recorded the reasons for exclusion (see table Characteristics of excluded studies table). We included adult (≥ 18) participants of both sexes without any restriction on their health condition.

Having more fluids in the body directly increases blood pressure levels. Some evidence suggests that reducing alcohol intake in heavy drinkers could help reduce BP, but much more research is required to validate these observations. Moreover, not only does drinking cause elevated blood pressure, but in excess, it can directly enhance the damage caused to cardiac and renal tissues by hypertension.