Alcohol Consumption and the Risk of Hypertension in Women and Men
Hypertension. 2008 Published online 7 Feb 2008


Heavy alcohol intake increases the risk of hypertension, but the relationship between light-to-moderate alcohol consumption and incident hypertension remains controversial.

During 10.9 and 21.8 years of follow-up, 8680 women and 6012 men developed hypertension (defined as new physician diagnosis, antihypertensive treatment, reported systolic blood pressure 140 mm Hg, or diastolic blood pressure 90 mm Hg).

In women, we found a J-shaped association between alcohol intake and hypertension in age- and lifestyle-adjusted models. Adding potential intermediates (body mass index, diabetes, and high cholesterol) attenuated the benefits of alcohol in the light-to-moderate range and strengthened the adverse effects of heavy alcohol intake. Beverage-specific relative risks paralleled those for total alcohol intake.

In men, alcohol intake was positively and significantly associated with the risk of hypertension and persisted after multivariate adjustment.

Models stratified by baseline systolic blood pressure or diastolic blood pressure did not alter the relative risks in women and men

In conclusion, light-to-moderate alcohol consumption decreased hypertension risk in women and increased risk in men. The threshold above which alcohol became deleterious for hypertension risk emerged at 4 drinks per day in women versus a moderate level of 1 drink per day in men.

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