Heavy drinking DOES cause high blood pressure....

Today's post: Monday, 5-19-2008

It was recently reported that sustained heavy drinking does cause high blood pressure.

In particular, a recent study was announced that showed that sustained heavy drinking caused the blood vessels of both men & women to become stiffer & less pliable thus creating extra drag on the system & requiring more pressure to drive blood through. This would tend to increase both the pulse pressure, or difference between the readings, AND the lower number or diastolic reading.

That means a desirable blood pressure of 115 over 75 might become 163 over 100 after years of heavy drinking—just from this one effect. So if the person also gained 35 pounds, ate very little vegetables or fruit & never exercised, they might well be at 177 over 105 -- or more. (Without the heavy drinking they might still only be at 129 over 80.)

Heavy drinking for men is over 3 drinks a day. For women, it is between 1 & 1/2 & twice that, more than one, or two or too often.

Also, the weekly total makes a big difference. Heavy drinking for men is 14 or over per week while for women it tends to be in the 8 to 10 or over range.

And, of course, it makes a difference how old you are, how many years you drink heavily, & how healthy you are otherwise.

However, since heavy drinking both harms your health AND increases your chances of being in a serious accident, it makes good sense to avoid it. And, it’s clear that heavy drinking every day of the week for years is really harmful.

Unfortunately, the report of this research did NOT say HOW heavy drinking caused this effect. It could be that it increased the microscopic damage in the blood vessels of the heavy drinkers and harmed their lining or endothelium. Or it could be that it increased their inflammation. Or that it might increase the amount of plaque or calcified plaque that got deposited in their blood vessels. Or it might do all of the above.

It did say that heavy drinking did tend to damage the left ventricle of the heart in women who were heavy drinkers & to produce an enlarged heart.

One or two drinks for men several days a week with one being more common or one drinks for women several days a week still looks like it produces more good than harm by reducing stress & increasing HDL.

However, this new research confirms that drinking a lot more than that DOES cause high blood pressure & related damage.