Alcohol en hoge bloeddruk?*
Uit een Nederlandse studie onder bijna 12.000 mannen met hoge bloeddruk blijkt dat 1 tot 2 glaasjes per dag geen grotere kans geven op een eerdere dood als gevolg van een beroerte of een andere reden. Daarentegen de kans om te sterven als gevolg van een hartaanval is bij 1 glaasje per dag 32% kleiner en bij 1-2 glaasjes 28% kleiner. Dit komt omdat alcohol zorgt voor dunner bloed en een verhoging van het goede cholesterol (HDL) geeft.
De resultaten geven geen aanleiding om niet-drinkers te adviseren te gaan drinken en zeker geen aanleiding voor drinkers om meer te gaan drinken, want bij 3 glazen of meer per dag gaat de bloeddruk flink stijgen.
Moderate
Drinking Cuts Heart Attack Risk in Hypertensive Men
Men with high blood
pressure who have a drink or two per day may be at lower risk for heart attack
than men who don't drink at all, new research suggests.
The study of almost
12,000 hypertensive patients found that moderate drinking did not affect stroke
risk or the risk for death from all causes, however.
But the good news is that
"men with hypertension that drink moderately -- one to two drinks a day --
do not need to change those habits," according to study lead author Joline
W. J. Beulens, a University Medical Center masters student at the Utrecht Julius
Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Because the study
involved men only, it's not yet clear if the findings apply to women, the
researchers said.
According to the U.S.
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, about one in three Americans now
struggle with high blood pressure. Once diagnosed, this "silent
killer" can double the risk for cardiovascular disease and death.
Excessive drinking is
known to increase blood pressure. However, a handful of studies have suggested
that hypertensive patients who consume a moderate amount of alcohol may reduce
their risk of cardiovascular complications that lead to death.
According to experts,
small amounts of alcohol may act to thin the blood while increasing levels of
HDL ("good") cholesterol in such patients, resulting in a protective
effect.
However, until now, no
study has specifically explored the impact of moderate drinking on the incidence
of non-fatal heart attacks and strokes among people with high blood pressure.
In their study, the
researchers tracked more than 11,700 men diagnosed with high blood pressure who
were between the ages of 40 and 75. The men were all participants in a larger
U.S. national study involving male health professionals that began in 1986.
All the men in the study
completed initial and follow-up questionnaires between 1986 and 2002 that
collected information on their medical history, diets, and drinking habits.
Those who had a history
of hypertension as early as 1975 were included in the final analysis, while the
researchers excluded those whose condition had developed earlier or those who
had a pre-1986 history of cardiovascular disease, stroke, or cancer.
During the 16 years of
the study, 653 of the participants had a heart attack, and in 279 cases, the
attack was fatal. However, Beulens and her team found that moderate drinking was
associated with a decrease in the overall risk for heart attack.
Compared to abstainers,
men with hypertension who drank about a drink per day were 32 percent less
likely to experience fatal or non-fatal heart attack; men who drank between one
and two drinks per day had a 28 percent lower risk.
This amount of daily
drinking did not appear to affect the men's risk of death from all causes,
however. And the researchers could not draw any firm conclusion as to links
between drinking and stroke, due to the infrequent occurrence of strokes overall
in the study.
Spirits, followed by beer
and wine, were the most popular option among those study participants who drank.
Moderate consumption of spirits also showed the strongest association with
lowered heart attack risk, the researchers said.
While the study seems to
support the notion that men with high blood pressure who drink in moderation can
continue to do so, the decision to drink or not to drink needs to be made on a
case-by-case basis, Beulens said.
"Abstainers usually
have a good reason to do so," she noted, remarking that there are a host of
legitimate medical and social factors that inform any decision not to drink in
the first place. "So, it would not be desirable to advise them to start
drinking."
The authors noted that
very light drinking -- a glass every 2 or 3 days -- had no effect in reducing
heart attack rates among hypertensive men.
The findings should not
be seen as a recommendation for drinkers to drink more, Buelens said.
"Because drinking
more than three drinks a day increases blood pressure and risk of hypertension,
it is important to stick to the guideline of one to two drinks a day," she
said.