As with everything in your diet, moderation of alcohol is key. Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages is one drink per day for women or two drinks for men. A single serving is equivalent to a 12-oz. beer. Enjoying a cold beer on a hot summer day is unlikely to lead to high blood pressure. You run into problems if you have several beers every single day over an extended period of time.
What is High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure, or hypertension, means that the force of blood pushes on your artery walls. This strain may eventually lead to heart disease. Your pressure is high when it stays above 140/90 for a long period of time. If you are a heavy drinker, cutting down your consumption can cause drastic changes in your blood pressure. According to the Mayo Clinic, reducing your alcohol intake can lower your systolic pressure, the number on top, by 2 to 4 mm Hg. Additionally, making this lifestyle change can lower your diastolic blood pressure, the bottom number, by 1 to 2 mm Hg.
Beer vs. Wine
Research on alcohol and hypertension is continuously being conducted and evaluated. While there is a positive correlation between alcohol and increased blood pressure, the type of alcohol is controversial. Beer in particular increases your heart rate and blood pressure more than wine does, reports Science Daily. Drinking 38 oz. of beer can raise your systolic blood pressure by as much as 2.9 mm Hg, while 13 oz. of red wine only increases it by around 1.9 mm Hg. These effects may be temporary, but drinking heavily on a regular basis can keep your blood pressure elevated.
Effects of Too Much Beer
Drinking heavily, more than two servings of beer daily, raises your blood pressure, causing damage to your body. Having high blood pressure forces your heart to work harder. Not only does this wear your heart down, it damages blood vessels. According to the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse, high blood pressure is one of the leading causes of kidney failure. Cutting back on beer can help lower your blood pressure and in some cases, your doctor may suggest eliminating beer and alcohol all together.
Benefits of Moderate Beer Consumption
A study published by the "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition" in 2001 reports that beer in moderation may have beneficial effects on homocysteine levels in your blood. Homocysteine is a type of amino acid that is a single independent risk factor for heart disease and may increase your blood pressure, if you have high levels. Drinking one to two beers per day may help maintain normal homocysteine levels. Heavy beer consumption can have the opposite effect, increasing your homocysteine and promoting high blood pressure.
References
- MayoClinic.com; High blood pressure (hypertension); March 2011
- Science Daily; Drinking Wine Or Beer Has Same Result: Higher Blood Pressure; April 2005
- MayoClinic.com; Does drinking alcohol affect your blood pressure?; Sheldon G. Sheps; July 2010
- "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; A Population Study of the Influence of Beer Consumption on Folate and Homocysteine Concentrations; O. Mayer Jr. et al; July 2001
- National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse; High Blood Pressure and Kidney Disease; July 2008
