Alcohol-induced hypertension: Mechanism and prevention

Any medication can cause side effects, and blood pressure medication is no exception. Alcohol can cause its own side effects, but coupled with certain blood pressure medications, it can have further negative results. If you’re ready to cut back or quit drinking, Ray Recovery is here to help. Get personalized, judgment-free support to take control of your health one step at a time.

Blood Pressure After Alcohol Withdrawal: What to Expect and Manage

The more alcohol you drink, the worse it could get, while abstinence can help you lower blood pressure to normal values. Studies show that the ingestion of alcohol raises the blood pressure by reducing the vasodilators, such as nitric oxide (NO) in the vascular endothelium. Chronic alcohol consumption, basically, decreases the production of nitric oxide or its release from endothelial cells. If you belong to a group at higher risk of developing hypertension because of alcohol and you fall under other categories mentioned above, you should get your blood pressure monitored regularly. On the other hand, some men and women do feel their blood pressure is elevated due to headaches, nosebleeds, and shortness of breath. Hypertension is one of those conditions that keeps worsening when left unmanaged.

How we reviewed this article:

The same association was subsequently reported in a rural Chinese population in whom Yang et al. observed that left ventricular mass was directly related to the amount and frequency of alcohol consumption 62. It is important to point out that, in the Yang study, this relationship was also present in a subset of patients with hypertension and was independent of blood pressure levels. A direct relationship between alcohol intake and left ventricular hypertrophy was also reported in Japanese hypertensive patients by Seki et al., and was independent from blood pressure levels and metabolic variables 63. Interestingly, this study pointed to the possibility that the relationship between alcohol and hypertension could be somehow related to uric acid. On the other hand, a study by Larsson et al. 58 reported a decreased risk of heart failure in mild to moderate drinkers consuming less than 14 drinks per week.

Take Control of Your Blood Pressure: Lifestyle changes and therapies to lower your risk of the “silent killer.”

For the other domains, we grouped outcomes together and provided only one judgement. 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. Alcohol has been reported to diminish baroreceptor sensitivity, which is a key factor in regulating blood pressure (Abdel‐Rahman 1985; Rupp 1996). Baroreceptors or stretch receptors are mechanoreceptors located on the arch of the aorta and the carotid sinus. They can detect changes in blood pressure and can maintain blood pressure by controlling heart rate, contractility, and peripheral resistance.

• The authors of a 2020 research review examined the short-term effects of alcohol on healthy people over 18 years old within 6 hours of consumption.
• That way, you’ll receive the best possible support to recover from alcohol and improve your health.
• Ceccanti et al. investigated blood pressure changes in chronic alcohol dependents on early alcohol withdrawal that were followed for 18 days 97.

Low, moderate, and high alcohol consumption increased heart rate within the first six hours. High alcohol consumption also increased heart rate from 7 to 12 hours and after 13 hours. Most of the evidence from this review is relevant to healthy males, as these trials included small numbers of women (126 females compared to 638 males). The serum levels of vasoactive substances such as renin-aldosterone have been reported to be affected by alcohol ingestion in vivo or ethanol in vitro54-56. Antihypertensive drugs are shown to offer protection against alcohol induced responses in cultured human endothelial cells suggesting the possible involvement of renin-angiotensin system (RAS)56.

You may also receive other medications or treatments for related health issues, like IV fluids for dehydration and electrolyte imbalances or antinausea medicines if you experience vomiting. It’s important to be honest about your alcohol use — and any other substance use — so your provider can give you the best high blood pressure alcohol care. Alcohol withdrawal can range from very mild symptoms to a severe form, known as delirium tremens.

Mild to moderate alcohol withdrawal treatment

Alcohol withdrawal is a potentially serious complication of alcohol use disorder. It’s important to get medical help even if you have mild alcoholism symptoms of withdrawal, as it’s difficult to predict in the beginning how much worse the symptoms could get. For mild alcohol withdrawal that’s not at risk of worsening, your provider may prescribe carbamazepine or gabapentin to help with symptoms.

If future RCTs include both men and women, it is important that their blood pressure and heart rate readings are reported separately. Although eligible studies included East Asian, Latino, and Caucasian populations, they lacked African, South Asian, and Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander representation. Large RCTs including both hypertensive and normotensive participants with various ethnic backgrounds are required to understand the effects of alcohol on blood pressure and heart rate based on ethnicity and the presence of hypertension.

Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, most days of the week. Being aware of these risk factors can help you make informed choices about your alcohol intake and overall health strategies. Sara Tasnim (ST) and Chantel Tang (CT) drafted the protocol with help from JMW. Both ST and CT independently assessed studies for inclusion or exclusion and assessed the risk of bias of all included studies. We also did not rate the certainty of evidence based on the funding sources of studies or on lack of a registered protocol because we did not think this would affect the effect estimates for these outcomes. However, we noted the lack of description of randomisation and allocation concealment methods in most of the included studies as a reason for downgrading because of the possibility of selection bias.

So, it was not appropriate to conduct a separate meta‐analysis based on that population. We used GRADEpro software to construct a ‘Summary of findings’ table to compare outcomes including change in SBP and DBP and HR (GRADEpro 2014). In addition, we included illustrative risks to present findings for the most important outcome (change in systolic blood pressure).