This review summarises the acute effects of different doses of alcohol on blood pressure and heart rate in adults (≥ 18 years of age) during three different time intervals after ingestion of alcohol. It is a common substance of abuse and its use can lead to more than 200 disorders including hypertension. This review aimed to quantify the acute effects of different doses of alcohol over time on blood pressure and heart rate in an adult population. Some studies suggest low amounts of alcohol may help reduce blood pressure or risk of heart disease. However, the CDC states these findings may be due to other lifestyle differences between people who drink moderately and those who do not. Through the process of oxidative phosphorylation, the mitochondria generate ~90 percent of cellular ATP.
- Personnel were blinded instead of participants in Karatzi 2013, and neither personnel nor participants were blinded in Agewall 2000, so we assessed these studies as having high risk of bias.
- That means, if you’re living with other medical conditions and/or taking certain medications, this will all have an impact on how alcohol affects you.
- After de‐duplication and screening of titles and abstracts, we were left with 482 citations for further assessment.
- Here is how drinking levels are defined according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
- Dumont 2010, Karatzi 2013, Kawano 1992, and Williams 2004 reported reasons for participant withdrawal and excluded their data from the final analysis.
To Drink or Not to Drink: High Blood Pressure and Alcohol
The way in which alcohol consumption has been measured and categorized varies, sometimes making it challenging to compare data among studies. More studies today report alcohol consumption in terms of either “drinks” or grams/units of ethanol per day or week, and alcohol consumption is measured by self-report. Most investigators also define the amount of alcohol that constitutes a “standard” drink as 12 https://ecosoberhouse.com/ to 15 g (with only slight variation).
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Many interrelated changes are possibly responsible for the biphasic effect of alcohol on blood pressure. A dose of 14 grams of pure alcohol/ethanol or less was defined as a low dose of alcohol. All outcomes of interest in the review (BP and HR) produced continuous data. We calculated and reported mean difference (MD), with corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI). We included adult (≥ 18) participants of both sexes without any restriction on their health condition.
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The authors noted that there was no overall increase in the risk of hypertension with any level of alcohol consumption for African Americans as a group, although in Black women, there was an association between light drinking and higher blood pressure. However, there were far fewer studies that focus on African Americans for the researchers to review, and more research may be needed. Hence, we conducted additional analyses to see if the very high dose of alcohol (≥ 60 g or ≥ 1 g/kg) had any dose‐related effects compared to lower high doses of alcohol (31 to 59 g of alcohol) (see Table 9). Results suggest that the decrease in BP with very high doses of alcohol is greater compared to lower high doses of alcohol. However, the result was heterogeneous; therefore, we are unable to make any implications from this.
Differences between protocol and review
This suggests that alcoholic beverage type may be an important mediator, because in countries such as Russia, spirits are the alcoholic beverage of choice. However, the negative associations between alcohol consumption and CV outcomes in these countries also may relate to pervasive patterns of binge drinking (Leon et al. 2009). Several studies and meta-analyses have been conducted to determine the relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of developing heart failure in healthy subjects, as well as in those with a history of MI or CHD. Studies also have examined the “safety” of alcoholic beverage consumption in subjects with heart failure. First, there was the possibility of undesired bias and imprecision due to imputations of missing statistics.
Data and analyses
- To determine short‐term dose‐related effects of alcohol versus placebo on systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in healthy and hypertensive adults over 18 years of age.
- We conducted a standard Chi² test through Review Manager Software 5.3 to test for heterogeneity (Review Manager (RevMan)).
- If you have developed any complications of high blood pressure or alcohol intake, your doctor can also help you manage them as well.
- At the time of drinking, alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream and then carried throughout the body, with a temporary increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
- For selective reporting for heart rate (HR), we classified only Koenig 1997 as having high risk of bias because heart rate was not reported.
- The best way of knowing if there’s a problem is to have your blood pressure measured.
Her work has appeared in Women’s Health, Men’s Health and Reader’s Digest.Dr. Merle Myerson is a board-certified cardiologist with specialties in sports medicine, lipids, women’s health and prevention of cardiovascular disease. At Healthgrades, our Editorial Team works hard to develop complete, objective and meaningful health information to help people choose the right doctor, right hospital and right care. Our writers include physicians, pharmacists, and registered nurses with firsthand clinical experience. All condition, treatment and wellness content is medically reviewed by at least one medical professional ensuring the most accurate information possible.
We used GRADEpro software to construct a ‘Summary of findings’ table to compare outcomes including change in SBP and DBP and HR (GRADEpro 2014). In addition, we included illustrative risks to present findings for the most important outcome (change in systolic blood pressure). We assessed selective reporting bias for each of the outcomes separately. For the other domains, we grouped outcomes together and provided only one judgement. We contacted study authors for missing or unclear information required for the risk of bias assessment and then reassessed the domains once the information was available. how does alcohol affect high blood pressure Heavier drinking (binge drinking) can also bring on a first episode of arrhythmia; once this has happened for the first time, you’re at an increased risk in the future.
