Whether the drink of choice is a frosty beer or a full-bodied red wine, the effect is the same – higher blood pressure, according to research reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“A positive relationship between alcohol consumption and blood pressure is well established, but the relative effect of specific alcoholic beverages is controversial,” said lead researcher Renate R. Zilkens, Ph.D., research fellow in the School of Medicine and Pharmacology at University of Western Australia.
Red wine appears to have a dual effect on blood vessels. The alcohol in it may raise blood pressure, but the polyphenolic compounds in red wine may have antioxidant effects and help relax blood vessels. There may be subtle differences between wine, beer and spirits on heart rate and other cardiovascular measurements.
Researchers investigated whether red wine has less of an impact on blood pressure than other alcoholic beverages and whether it improved vascular function. They studied 24 healthy, non-smoking men aged 20 to 65. All the men were daily drinkers, with normal blood pressure and no history of heart disease.
The men abstained from all alcohol during a two-week run-in period and then were randomized to four different interventions for four weeks: no alcohol, 375 ml (13 ounces) of red wine, or de-alcoholized red wine, or 1,125 ml (38 ounces) of beer. At the end of the four-week intervention, the volunteers switched to a different intervention, until they had completed all four. The men maintained their normal diets during the 16-week study, but restricted tea to less than two cups a day, and avoided antioxidant supplements and all over-the-counter medications.
Volunteers were evaluated with 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, ultrasound measurement of blood vessel or “endothelial function,” as well as urine and blood tests.
Researchers found that drinking beer increased waking systolic blood pressure (the first number in a blood pressure reading) by 2.9 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), while wine increased systolic pressure by an average of 1.9 mm Hg. Beer also increased sleeping heart rate by 5.0 beats-per-minute (bpm) and wine increased it by 4.4 bpm.