A team of US and Dutch scientists have found that men with high blood pressure who drink moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to suffer fatal or non-fatal heart attacks. They also suggest the risk of heart attack or stroke is no different for hypertensive men who drink moderately to those who do not drink at all.
The long-term study is published in the latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, due out today.
The research team comes from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (a Harvard teaching hospital) and the Dutch TNO Quality of Life research institute and Wageningen University .
According to the lead scientist, Joline Beulens, a PhD fellow at TNO Quality of Life and Wageningen University, “because excess alcohol intake clearly increases blood pressure, many men with hypertension are counseled not to drink, but our results suggest that may not be necessary if men drink safely and responsibly”.
The researchers believe this is the first study to look at the link between high blood pressure and moderate alcohol consumption in men in relation to heart problems.
They looked at the records of 11,711 males from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study that started in 1986 where questionnaires were completed every four years. The men wrote down how often they drank beer, red and white wine, and other alcohol. This was correlated to case-data on non-fatal and fatal heart attacks and strokes between 1986 and 2002. During the 16 year period 653 cases of heart attacks and strokes took place, of which 279 were fatal.
The researchers also took into account a number of factors such as diet, exercise, and body weight. Since the study only included male healthcare professionals, the researchers cannot be certain that the results would be the same for everyone else.
65 million people in the US have high blood pressure, which doubles the risk of getting cardiovascular disease (CVD) and dying from it. Earlier research studies have suggested that one or two drinks a day is likely to reduce the risk, but if you drink more than that, the chances of getting high blood pressure go up.
Some studies have found a link between moderate drinking by hypertensives and reduced risk of death from CVD, but none has explored the link with non-fatal heart attacks or strokes in the longer term.
It is thought that moderate alcohol drinking could be acting to reduce risk of CVD by increasing the level of “good” HDL cholesterol and also by making the blood thinner.
“Alcohol Consumption and Risk for Coronary Heart Disease Among Men With Hypertension.”
Joline W.J. Beulens, Eric B. Rimm, Alberto Ascherio, Donna Spiegelman, Henk F.J. Hendriks, Kenneth J. Mukamal.
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2007; 146:10-19.
Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today