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More findings from the report
How alcohol affects blood pressure negatively
Alcohol use affects the cardiovascular system negatively in multiple ways.
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- The smooth functioning of the endothelium to maintain the capability to dilate the arteries in response to increased blood flow becomes gradually compromised with increased alcohol use, even for low-dose alcohol users and especially for people who consume alcohol heavily.
- Alcohol consumption causes calcification in both aortic and coronary arteries, increasing with level or dose of alcohol use.
- Chronic alcohol use impairs the important feedback system between the autonomic nervous system and the heart. This is an intricate regulatory system, consisting of nervous control of both vascular tone and heart rate.
- Binge alcohol use in adolescence, young adulthood and middle age predicts higher blood pressure at baseline and severalyears later.
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Why we know what we know
- Overall, alcohol consumption is a risk factor for high blood pressure. The connection is supported by studies of all types of methods and is most evident for consumption of more than 24 grams of alcohol per day.
- Results from cohort studies and studies with Mendelian randomization suggest that the risk of high blood pressure may increase even with very low consumption.
- There is no evidence that alcohol consumption at any level lowers blood pressure, or protects against high blood pressure, in randomized or cross-over studies.
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Other recent findings on alcohol and heart disease
A recent policy brief from the World Heart Federation concluded that alcohol has played a major role in the near-doubling of theglobal prevalence of cardiovascular disease.
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About the report
A international group of esteemed researchers comes together every year to dive deeply into a specific topic of alcohol research.
First, the scientists conduct extensive research to identify relevant published science on the selected topic, such as alcohol and blood pressure.
Then, the group reviews and summarizes the search results. They are subsequently published in a report.
This year the report deals with alcohol and blood pressure – a topic of specific public interest due to the high health and mortality burden of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, and due to pervasive misconcpetions and myths about alcohol’s role in heart disease.
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The research group
- Sven Andreasson, senior physician and senior professor of social medicine at the department of global public health, Karolinska Institutet,
- Frida Dangardt, senior physician and researcher at the Children’s Heart Center at Queen Silvia’s Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg,
- Tanya Chikritzhs, PhD in alcohol epidemiology and leader of the alcohol research group at Australia’s National Drug Research Institute, NDRI,
- Tim Stockwell, researcher at, and former director of, the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research in British Columbia, Canada,
- Timothy Naimi, physician and director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research in British Columbia, Canada, and
- Harold Holder, Senior Scientist Emeritus and former Director of the Prevention Research Center (PRC), California.
The disseminating partners
Dissemination of the report are IOGT-NTO, Movendi International, Riksförbundet HjärtLung, Swedish Association for General Medicine, Swedish Nurses Association, CERA, Stiftelsen Ansvar för Framtiden, Actis, Alcohol & Society, Hela människan, SLAN, MA – Rusfri Trafikk, MHF Motorförarnas Helnykterhetsbund , Sweden’s Blue Cross Association, Sweden’s Free Church Council, Swedish Association for Addiction Medicine, and SIGHT.
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With 140+ Member Organization from 50+ countries, Movendi International is the largest independent global social movement for development through alcohol prevention. We unite, strengthen and empower civil society to tackle alcohol as serious obstacle to development on personal, community, societal and global level.
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