​One drink a day could raise blood pressure – study

Researchers said people should avoid alcohol altogether after finding that routinely drinking, even in small quantities, can increase a person’s blood pressure.

While the largest increases were seen among heavy drinkers, the international team of academics were “surprised” to find that drinking at low levels also had an effect.

When a person’s blood pressure is too high it puts extra strain on blood vessels, heart and other organs, such as the brain, kidneys and eyes.

Persistent high blood pressure can lead to a number of serious health problems including heart attacks, strokes and vascular dementia.

While there are medications which can help, people can make a number of life-style changes to help bring their blood pressure down including regular exercise, losing weight, cutting back on caffeine, alcohol and salt.

The new study, published in the Hypertension – an American Heart Association journal, saw researchers examine data from seven international studies on drinking and high blood pressure.

The studies involved more than 19,548 people from the US, Korea and Japan who were tracked for at least five years.

Usual alcoholic drink intake was recorded at the start of each study and the analysis was based on grams of alcohol consumed and not just on the number of drinks a person had.

The academics found a link between increases in systolic blood pressure – which notes the force at which the heart pumps blood around the body – and the number of daily alcoholic drinks.

Even people who drank one alcoholic beverage each day showed a link to higher blood pressure when compared to non-drinkers.

They also found an increase in diastolic blood pressure – the resistance to the blood flow in the blood vessels between heartbeats when blood is pumped around the heart – in men but not in women.

Senior study author Professor Marco Vinceti from the medical school of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia University in Italy and an adjunct professor at Boston University’s school of public health said: “We found no beneficial effects in adults who drank a low level of alcohol compared to those who did not drink alcohol.

“We were somewhat surprised to see that consuming an already-low level of alcohol was also linked to higher blood pressure changes over time compared to no consumption – although far less than the blood pressure increase seen in heavy drinkers.

“Alcohol is certainly not the sole driver of increases in blood pressure; however, our findings confirm it contributes in a meaningful way.

“Limiting alcohol intake is advised, and avoiding it is even better.”