Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Hypertension: Clinical Implications of Current Research

Abstract

Substantial evidence demonstrates that: 1) heavy alcohol consumption (three or more standard drinks per day) is associated with and predictive of hypertension; 2) reduction in alcohol consumption is associated withA s the most common primary diagnosis in the United States, hypertension affects approximately 30% of the population and more than one half of people over the age of 60.1,2 An additional 22% may be prehypertensive. Hypertension is the leading cause of stroke and congestive heart failure and the second most common contributor to endstage renal disease. 2Recent evidence suggests that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduction in the risk of total and cardiovascular disease mortality in hypertensive men.3 The seventh as well as several of the other reports of the Joint National Committee on the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) recommend that hypertensive patients limit alcohol intake to no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. Excessive alcohol consumption (three or more drinks per day) increases blood pressure (BP) significantly in normotensive and hypertensive patients and is strongly linked to hypertension. 4Even in young patients with prehypertension or stage 1 hypertension, daytime diastolic BP variability is significantly increased in heavy drinkers, even after adjusting for smoking. 5A national consensus panel in Canada recently conducted a comprehensive review of the alcoholhypertension literature and found overwhelming R e v i e w P a p e r • C M E

Age-dependent increase in blood pressure in two different Native American communities in Brazil

“…Studies have shown an association between alcohol ingestion and blood pressure [29]. We did not perform a systematic investigation of alcohol consumption in our study.…”

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) as a marker of alcohol abuse: A critical review of the literature 2001–2005

“…Excessive alcohol consumption is also reported to be associated with hypertension. On this basis, the determination of CDT has been proposed as feedback of alcohol abuse in patients treated for Type 2 diabetes and hypertension [68,69].…”

Characterization of the Pharmacokinetics of Phosphatidylethanol 16:0/18:1 and 16:0/18:2 in Human Whole Blood After Alcohol Consumption in a Clinical Laboratory Study

“…Several reports highlight the value of PEth for identification of harmful drinking (Aradottir et al, 2006, Hahn et al, 2010, Hansson et al, 1997, Miller et al, 2005, Stewart et al, 2010, Hahn et al, 2012), monitoring consumption during treatment (Kip et al, 2008), and various forensic applications (Marques et al, 2011, Marques et al, 2010). Yet a more complete characterization of the synthesis and elimination of PEth would provide more accurate estimations of the amount and time frame of ethanol consumption.…”