Alcohol Linked To Decreased Hypertension Risk In Young Women

"For women in their 20s to 40s, we found that alcohol intake at moderate levels was beneficial to blood pressure and at high levels it was harmful," says Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, of the Renal Unit at MGH and the Channing Laboratory at BWH, the paper's lead author. Thadhani and his colleagues found that the association between alcohol consumption and risk of chronic hypertension in young women follows what is called a J-shaped curve: Light drinkers had a decreased risk compared with nondrinkers, but heavier drinkers had an increased risk.

Thadhani and his team gathered data from over 70,000 women aged 25 to 42 years old at the study's outset in 1989, who did not report having hypertension during the study's early years. After eight years of follow-up, the scientists found that women who drank about two or three drinks a week had a risk of developing hypertension about 15 percent lower than that of nondrinkers. However, women who drank on average more than 10 or 12 drinks per week had a 30 percent increased risk of developing the condition.

The study also looked at patterns of alcohol consumption. "We found that episodic or binge drinking didn't increase the risk of high blood pressure compared to drinking more regularly," says Thadhani. But he cautions that binge drinking is associated with stroke, cardiovascular disease and trauma.

Thadhani and his colleagues also investigated whether there were any differences in the type of drink consumed. At the higher levels of consumption, all beverages - beer, wine, and liquor - increased blood pressure, whereas there was a suggestion that moderate beer drinking led to lower blood pressures. The researchers note that more work needs to be done on this area.

"This study suggests that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol may be one way to modify a woman's risk of developing high blood pressure," says Thadhani. He stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy blood pressure because chronic hypertension is associated with heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease. "Our next step is to understand how alcohol effects women of different races and ethnicity, since one group may respond differently than another. We also want to see if modifying alcohol consumption can help women who already have high blood pressure get to a healthier level," says Thadhani.

Other co-authors of the report are Carlos A. Camargo, Jr, MD, DrPH, and Gary C. Curhan, MD, ScD, of MGH; and Meir J. Stampfer, MD, DrPH; Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH; and Eric B. Rimm, ScD, the study's senior author, of Harvard School of Public Health and BWH. The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.