Can I Drink Alcohol if I Have High Blood Pressure?

So, it was not possible to conduct a subgroup analysis based on blood pressure. For the planned subgroup analysis based on sex, no study reported male and female participant data separately. Thus alcohol decreases blood pressure initially (up to 12 hours after ingestion) and increases blood pressure after that. Alcohol consistently increases heart rate at all times within 24 hours of consumption. We are also moderately certain that high‐dose alcohol decreased blood pressure within six hours, and the effect lasted up to 12 hours. Heart Substance abuse rate increased significantly after alcohol consumption and remained increased at all times measured.

Cannabis is not a chill as you might think (at least for your heart)

She notes that it can cause an enlarged heart (alcoholic cardiomyopathy), which weakens your heart and makes it harder to pump blood. And if you drink heavily and quickly, Goldberg says it can set you up for heart arrhythmias, which are abnormal or irregular heartbeats. Keep in mind that high blood pressure usually doesn’t have symptoms – and is very common. Almost half of all U.S. adults have high blood pressure, and only 1 in 4 of them have it under good control, according to the CDC. Yes, dehydration plays a critical role in lowering blood pressure after drinking. Alcohol acts as a diuretic, increasing urine production and fluid loss.

Karatzi 2013 published data only

• Yes, many individuals experience immediate health benefits after quitting alcohol.
• There is likely a dose‐response effect of alcohol on BP, as the effects of alcohol appeared to last longer with higher doses.
• Since everyone’s tolerance and metabolism differ, there is no one-size-fits-all amount.
• A 2023 review suggests that there’s a significant blood pressure benefit to reducing alcohol use or avoiding it altogether.
• In PATHS 1998, treatment assignments were randomly determined at the start of the study using a fixed randomisation scheme with uniform allocation, variable block size and stratification by clinic.
• Data were balanced across groups, hence missing data did not affect the final results.

Rather than trying to cut out alcohol completely, allow yourself to fully enjoy one or two drinks on designated days per week. Avoid falling into the habit of drinking every single night of the week, which poses the greatest risk for high blood pressure and related issues over time. Taking into account that available information was very limited coming from only one study, no meta‐analysis was carried out. While the protocol considered several sensitivity analyses to be explored (intention‐to‐treat analysis, risk of bias, missing data), final data were insufficient to achieve meaningful conclusions. We included one randomised controlled trial involving a total of 269 participants with a two‐year follow‐up.

• And make sure you’re drinking plenty of water between drinks and once you’ve finished drinking, to rehydrate your body.
• Because there are no published standards for differentiating between low and medium doses of alcohol, we chose the alcohol content in one standard drink as the threshold between low dose and medium dose.
• Several factors are to blame, one being your body’s network of blood vessels, which changes with age.
• This systematic review searched only the MEDLINE database for relevant studies, hence it was not exhaustive.
• Methodological differences between studies might have affected measurement of the reported outcomes.
• Furthermore, our project was only focussed on hypertensive subjects, whereas normotensives were also admitted in Roerecke 2017.

Table 2:

If you have high blood pressure or other medical issues impacted by alcohol, get personalized advice from your healthcare provider on healthy limits for your lifestyle and health status. Be honest about your current drinking habits so they can actually help you. If you believe you might have an issue with alcohol abuse, also ask for referrals to treatment programs. Heavy drinking indicates more than three drinks per day or seven weekly for women and four daily or 14 weekly for men.

• To ensure the proper amount of alcohol, people need to know what binge eating and the amount of alcohol considered too much.
• We did random-effects meta-analyses stratified by amountof alcohol intake at baseline.
• This review included only short‐term randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effects of alcohol on blood pressure and heart rate.
• Eating a diet rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products and low in saturated fat and cholesterol can lower high blood pressure by up to 11 mm Hg.
• Even a little less sodium in the diet can improve heart health and blood pressure.

Conclusion – Why Does Blood Pressure Drop After Drinking Alcohol?

We contacted study authors for missing or unclear information required for the risk of bias assessment and then reassessed the domains once the information was available. We (ST and CT) independently screened the citations found through the database search using Covidence software (Covidence). We excluded articles if the citation seemed completely irrelevant or was identified as a review or observational study after the title and abstract were read. For remaining studies, we (ST and CT) retrieved full‐text articles for further assessment. Any disagreements regarding inclusion or exclusion of studies were resolved by discussion between review authors.

The Recovery Village Columbus Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Rehab specializes in compassionate, evidence-based care tailored to your needs. Whether you’re seeking alcohol lowers blood pressure help for yourself or a loved one, we’re here to guide you every step of the way. J Erviti authored the protocol, appraised inclusion criteria and drafted the final review. J Garjón authored the protocol, appraised inclusion criteria and drafted the final review.