Light Alcohol Consumption Increases Hypertension Risk if Outside Of Meals

New study alerts drinkers that a habit of drinking outside of meals may be setting them up for high blood pressure.

Research conducted at the University at Buffalo has shown that consuming alcohol mostly without food is a significant risk factor for developing hypertension. The effect was present even in people with light-to-moderate alcohol intake.

"These findings support the notion that in addition to amount, the way in which alcohol is consumed may have important implications for health and, in particular, for cardiovascular disease," said lead researcher Saverio Stranges, M.D., research instructor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions.

The findings were based on blood pressure readings and self-reported alcohol consumption patterns from a randomly selected sample of 2,609 white men and women between the ages of 35 and 80 who took part in the Western New York Health Study. All participants were free of other cardiovascular diseases.

Current drinkers were divided into categories depending on how often they drank: less than weekly, weekly non-daily; weekend only; or weekly daily.

Results confirmed findings of a previous study conducted in Italy by some of the same investigators and also showed for the first time that even light to moderate alcohol intake outside of meals puts drinkers at risk for hypertension.

"This is a novel finding with potentially important clinical implications," said Stranges. "It points out that drinking without food may counteract any benefit to the cardiovascular system associated with moderate alcohol consumption."

Those drinking mostly outside of mealtimes reported a significant increase in risk of hypertension compared with either lifetime abstainers or those drinking mostly with food.

Not surprisingly, results confirmed that a high level of alcohol consumption — defined as more than two drinks per day — is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure. "In fact," said Stranges, "the average volume of alcohol consumed during the past 30 days played a much more important role in the relationship between drinking and high blood pressure than how often a person drank."

There was no difference in risk based on the type of alcohol consumed, or the gender of drinkers.

"These findings add new and important information to the mounting evidence linking drinking pattern to numerous health outcomes" concluded Stranges.

University at Buffalo

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FACT:
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