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#11
Alcohol Linked to Decreased
Hypertension Risk in Young Women
Moderate alcohol consumption can lead to a reduced risk of
developing hypertension in young women
Moderate alcohol consumption can lead to a reduced risk of
developing hypertension in young women, according to researchers
from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and
Women's Hospital (BWH). The study results, published in the March
11, 2002, Archives of Internal Medicine, use data from the Nurses'
Health Study II, which is based at BWH.
"For women in their 20s to 40s, we found that alcohol intake at
moderate levels was beneficial to blood pressure and at high
levels it was harmful," says Ravi Thadhani, M.D., M.P.H., of the
Renal Unit at MGH and the Channing Laboratory at BWH, the paper's
lead author. Thadhani and his colleagues found that the
association between alcohol consumption and risk of chronic
hypertension in young women follows what is called a J-shaped
curve: Light drinkers had a decreased risk compared with
nondrinkers, but heavier drinkers had an increased risk.
Thadhani and his team gathered data from over 70,000 women aged 25
to 42 years old at the study's outset in 1989, who did not report
having hypertension during the study's early years. After eight
years of follow-up, the scientists found that women who drank
about two or three drinks a week had a risk of developing
hypertension about 15 percent lower than that of nondrinkers.
However, women who drank on average more than 10 or 12 drinks per
week had a 30 percent increased risk of developing the condition.
The study also looked at patterns of alcohol consumption. "We
found that episodic or binge drinking didn't increase the risk of
high blood pressure compared to drinking more regularly," says
Thadhani. But he cautions that binge drinking is associated with
stroke, cardiovascular disease and trauma.
Thadhani and his colleagues also investigated whether there were
any differences in the type of drink consumed. At the higher
levels of consumption, all beverages - beer, wine, and liquor -
increased blood pressure, whereas there was a suggestion that
moderate beer drinking led to lower blood pressures. The
researchers note that more work needs to be done on this area.
"This study suggests that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol may
be one way to modify a woman's risk of developing high blood
pressure," says Thadhani. He stresses the importance of
maintaining a healthy blood pressure because chronic hypertension
is associated with heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease. "Our
next step is to understand how alcohol effects women of different
races and ethnicity, since one group may respond differently than
another. We also want to see if modifying alcohol consumption can
help women who already have high blood pressure get to a healthier
level," says Thadhani. The study was supported by grants from
the National Institutes of Health.
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