The Contribution of a Moderate Intake of Alcohol to the Presence of Hypertension

Abstract

The relationship between blood pressure and alcohol intake was examined in 2434 male and 1608 female London civil servants. These subjects had been selected from 24,000 office workers on the basis of responses to a health questionnaire. The men had an average blood pressure of 134/80 mmHg and consumed a mean of 62 g alcohol/week as beer, 28 g/week as wine or fortified wine and 18 g/week as spirits (a total of 11.8 drinks/week). The women had an average blood pressure of 133/79 mmHg and consumed 7 g alcohol/week as beer, 25 g/week as wine and 11 g/week as spirits (a total of 4.4 drinks/week). Twenty-five per cent of men and 24% of women had a casual diastolic pressure equal to or greater than 90 mmHg and were considered to have diastolic hypertension on the one occasion. There was no increase in either systolic or diastolic pressure in men until total alcohol intake exceeded 50 drinks/week. However, 1% of all men had hypertension associated with drinking alcohol and in those with hypertension, alcohol may have been the cause in between 4 and 9%. Defining 'hypertension' as a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or above on one occasion, 12-14% of people drinking more than 50 drinks of alcohol per week had hypertension associated with this intake of alcohol, and similarly, of those with both 'hypertension' and this level of intake, 36% could attribute their high blood pressure to their alcohol consumption.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)