A new global study has found that even small amounts of alcohol can raise your blood pressure. The good news is that cutting back—or quitting drinking altogether—can help lower it.
The research was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) and shared at a major heart health conference in Germany.
High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke. Doctors often advise people to drink less alcohol to stay healthy, but until now, the effects of light or moderate drinking—especially in women—were not very clear.
The study was led by Dr. Takahiro Suzuki from St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. The team looked at nearly 360,000 health check-up records collected from over 58,000 Japanese adults between 2012 and 2024. The goal was to see what happens to blood pressure when people start drinking or stop drinking.
Participants were divided into two main groups: regular drinkers and non-drinkers. Researchers then tracked what happened to their blood pressure over time if they either began drinking or quit.
The results were clear. People who quit drinking saw their blood pressure go down. For women who had been drinking one to two drinks a day, their top blood pressure number (called systolic) dropped by about 0.78 mmHg, and their bottom number (called diastolic) dropped by 1.14 mmHg.
For men, the drop was even more noticeable—1.03 mmHg for systolic and 1.62 mmHg for diastolic.
In contrast, people who started drinking after not drinking before saw their blood pressure go up. This happened in both men and women, showing a strong connection between drinking alcohol and increased blood pressure.
It also didn’t matter what kind of alcohol people drank. Beer, wine, and spirits all had the same effect. The important thing was how much alcohol people drank—not the type.
Dr. Suzuki said, “When it comes to blood pressure, drinking less is better. In fact, no alcohol is best. Even small cuts in drinking can help your heart.”
Dr. Harlan Krumholz, the Editor-in-Chief of the journal JACC, said the findings go against the common idea that small amounts of alcohol are harmless. “This study shows that even low levels of drinking may raise blood pressure. Reducing alcohol can be a real way to help lower it.”
The study does have some limits. It was an observational study, so it can’t say for sure that alcohol causes high blood pressure. People reported their own drinking habits, which may not always be accurate. Also, most of the participants were from Japanese cities, so the results may not be exactly the same for other people around the world.
Still, the main message is simple. If you want to improve your blood pressure, drinking less alcohol—or none at all—could help. With heart disease rates on the rise, even small changes in daily habits can have a big impact on your health.
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more health information, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
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