Do you relish a drink or two to unwind after a long day of hard work, celebrate the weekend, or just for pure enjoyment? Many people across the world do. Many people drink a glass of wine each day, thinking it’s suitable for their heart and blood pressure, but as it turns out, that might not be true. So, does alcohol raise blood pressure or affect the heart rate? It’s worth looking into how drinking alcohol—and yes, even red wine! —can affect your heart and overall health. Let’s dive in below!
First, what factors can affect my blood pressure?
When you or your doctor checks your blood pressure, what do those numbers tell you? For one thing, they give you an idea of how healthy your heart and blood vessels are. When your heart pumps blood to the rest of your body, your blood vessels should be stretchy enough to take on all that incoming blood. If your blood vessels are stiff, there’s less flexibility when that blood flows through, which translates to higher blood pressure.
So, things that affect how much blood your heart pumps out and how stretchy your blood vessels include:
- Not being physically active
- Being overweight
- Overeating salt
- Feeling stressed
- Smoking
- Having high cholesterol
- Having diabetes
- Drinking alcohol (more than 1 to 2 drinks in one day)
Family history, genetics, and older age are factors outside of your control that can affect blood pressure, too.
How does alcohol affect my blood pressure?
Though scientists are still learning exactly how it happens, we know that alcohol can, directly and indirectly, raise your blood pressure. But does alcohol raise blood pressure more permanently?
The direct effects of alcohol on blood pressure are related to how alcohol is processed through your body. Having more than three drinks can temporarily raise your blood pressure, but once the alcohol is processed out of your body, blood pressure usually returns to normal. Similarly, binge drinking—having five or more drinks in 2 hours for men and four or more drinks in 2 hours for women—can cause a temporary spike in blood pressure. But if binge drinking turns into long-term excess, it may lead to chronic hypertension (high blood pressure).
What about the indirect effects of alcohol on blood pressure? Alcohol contains lots of calories and sugars, which contribute to increased body fat, weight gain, and poor diet. All of these factors can lead to high blood pressure.
Heavy drinkers—binge drinking at least five days in one month—are more likely to experience the direct and indirect effects of alcohol on blood pressure compared to moderate drinkers. To improve blood pressure, it’s worthwhile for heavy drinkers to gradually reduce their intake by 1 to 2 servings of alcohol per day until they are drinking no more than 1 to 2 servings total per day. This would be considered moderate drinking. So, the answer to the question, “does alcohol raise blood pressure?” is: yes.