Alcohol and Blood Pressure: What to Know
Alcohol use can expose you to a wide range of life-threating health effects. Many of these effects result from – or can be made worse by – the relationship between alcohol and blood pressure.
Does Alcohol Raise Your Blood Pressure?
Does alcohol raise blood pressure? It most definitely does. And while many sources cite the negative impact of binge drinking and chronic alcohol abuse, a recent study indicates that you can be at risk even if you don’t drink excessively.
According to the American Heart Association (AHA), consuming just one alcoholic drink per day can cause an increase in blood pressure. The AHA based this warning on a July 2023 analysis of seven studies involving more than 19,000 participants.
That analysis also found that alcohol’s affect on blood pressure mostly follows a linear pattern. This means that heavier drinking is usually associated with larger increases in both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP).
Analysis Team’s Findings About Alcohol And Blood Pressure
- Among adults who consumed an average of 12 grams of alcohol per day – which equates to just a bit less than one standard drink – systolic blood pressure rose by an average of 1.25 mmHg over a five year period.
- Over the same time period, adults with an average daily alcohol consumption of 48 grams experienced an average increase of 4.9 mmHg in SBP.
- For men, drinking 12 grams of alcohol per day also led to an average increase of 1.14 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure, while 48 daily grams of alcohol was linked to a 3.1mmHG increase in DSB.
- The one exception to this pattern is that alcohol intake didn’t affect diastolic blood pressure among women.
SPB (which is the top number in a standard blood pressure reading) measures blood pressure when your heart is beating. DPB (the bottom number) represents blood pressure between heartbeats. These numbers are expressed in mmHG, which refers to the pressure created by a millimeter of mercury.
In general, a blood pressure reading of less than 120 mmHG systolic and less than 80 mmHG diastolic is considered normal for most adults.
Can You Drink Alcohol With High Blood Pressure?
Knowing that alcohol does raise blood pressure, a common follow-up question is, what happens next? Can you drink alcohol with high blood pressure? And, if you do, what type of damage could you incur?
Dangers When Drinking Alcohol With High Blood Pressure
If you have developed hypertension, but you continue to drink, your blood pressure problems are likely to get worse. This can put you at risk of several negative health outcomes, including:
- Vision loss
- Angina (chest pain)
- Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
- Heart failure
- Kidney damage
- Sexual dysfunction
- Brain damage
How Else Does Drinking Alcohol Negatively Affect Your Body?
The detrimental relationship between alcohol and blood pressure is just one example of the many ways that drinking can negatively affect your body.
Other potential health effects of alcohol use include:
- Heart problems such as abnormal heartbeat (arrhythmia) and a stretching of the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy)
- Liver damage, including steatosis, hepatitis, and cirrhosis
- Increased risk of many types of cancer, including head and neck, esophageal, liver, breast, and colorectal cancers
- Increased risk of stroke
- Physical injuries due to accidents, fights, and other behaviors related to alcohol’s impact on coordination and judgment
- Malnutrition
The health risks of alcohol aren’t limited to the person who is drinking. For example:
- Alcohol use has been linked to increases in various forms of violent crime, including rape and murder.
- In 2022, automobile accidents involving alcohol-impaired drivers caused 13,524 deaths in the U.S. This works out to an average of about one death every 39 minutes.
- Alcohol use has been identified as a factor in about 40% of confirmed cases of child maltreatment.
- People whose mothers drank while pregnant with them may develop fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which can include a variety of lifelong impairments.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), alcohol use was a causative factor in an estimated 2.6 million deaths across the globe in 2019. This total included 1.9 million deaths from alcohol-related diseases and 700,000 deaths from alcohol-involved injuries.
Contact Sanctuary Treatment Center if You Can’t Stop Drinking
The best way to avoid or delay the progression of alcohol-related health damage is to stop drinking. If you have developed alcohol use disorder – which is the clinical term for alcoholism – this can be difficult and potentially dangerous to accomplish on your own.
But when you get appropriate treatment from a trusted rehab center, you can safely end your alcohol use and begin to build a brighter future in recovery.
Sanctuary Treatment Center offers a full continuum of alcohol rehab services, including detox, residential treatment, and outpatient care. Our center in Los Angeles, California, is a safe and comfortable space where you can work in active collaboration with a team of skilled treatment professionals.
You don’t have to wait until you have incurred irreversible health damage or otherwise “hit rock bottom” before you can benefit from quality clinical care for alcohol addiction. The sooner you get the treatment you need, the quicker you can start living the healthier life you deserve.
To learn more about how we can help you, or to schedule a free assessment, visit our Contact page or call us today.
