Many people think that one or two alcoholic drinks a day are unlikely to affect their health.
But a large international study suggests that even relatively small amounts of alcohol may raise blood pressure, while cutting back or stopping drinking may help bring it down.
High blood pressure, also called hypertension, happens when blood pushes against artery walls with too much force over time. It often causes no obvious symptoms, but it can slowly damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease.
The new research was led by Dr. Takahiro Suzuki of St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo. The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, or JACC, and the findings were also presented at a major cardiology meeting in Germany.
Researchers examined nearly 360,000 annual health check-up records from more than 58,000 Japanese adults. The records covered the period from 2012 to 2024, giving the team a large amount of information about changes in drinking habits and blood pressure over time.
The researchers were particularly interested in what happened when people changed their alcohol use. They compared people who stopped drinking with people who continued, and they also examined people who began drinking after previously reporting no alcohol use.
The pattern was clear. Blood pressure tended to fall when people stopped drinking and rise when people started drinking, and the association appeared in both women and men.
Among women who had been drinking about one to two drinks a day, stopping alcohol was linked to a drop of about 0.78 mmHg in systolic blood pressure and 1.14 mmHg in diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading, while diastolic pressure is the bottom number.
Men experienced slightly larger changes. After stopping drinking, their systolic pressure fell by about 1.03 mmHg and their diastolic pressure fell by about 1.62 mmHg.
These changes may sound small for one person, but small average reductions in blood pressure across a large population can still matter. Even modest improvements could potentially reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes when they occur across millions of people.
The researchers also found that the kind of alcoholic drink did not appear to make an important difference. Beer, wine, and spirits showed similar patterns, suggesting that the amount of alcohol itself may matter more than the type of drink.
The findings add to growing questions about the idea that light drinking is harmless or good for the heart. According to Suzuki, the results suggest that drinking less is better for blood pressure and that avoiding alcohol may provide the greatest benefit.
JACC Editor-in-Chief Dr. Harlan Krumholz said the findings also challenge older beliefs about low levels of alcohol use. Reducing alcohol could therefore be one practical step for people trying to prevent or manage high blood pressure.
However, the study cannot prove that alcohol directly caused every change in blood pressure. It was an observational study, alcohol use was reported by participants themselves, and most participants were urban Japanese adults, so the findings may not apply equally to every population.
Still, the research provides another reason to consider alcohol when thinking about heart health. For people with high blood pressure, even reducing regular drinking rather than making a dramatic lifestyle change may be a useful topic to discuss with a doctor.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about blood pressure drug that may increase risk of sudden cardiac arrest, and these teas could help reduce high blood pressure.
For more health information, please see recent studies about nutrient that could strongly lower high blood pressure, and results showing this novel antioxidant may help reverse blood vessels aging by 20 years.
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