Alcohol, cardiovascular risk factors and mortality: the Chicago experience

The association between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular risk factors, the association between alcohol consumption and the incidence of high blood pressure, and the association between alcohol consumption and mortality, both all-cause and cause-specific, were examined in the white males from the Chicago Peoples Gas Company study and the Chicago Western Electric Company study. In both studies, there was a significant cross-sectional association between heavy alcohol use--defined as problem drinking in the Gas Company and as consumption of six or more drinks per day in the Western Electric Company--and the level of blood pressure and high blood pressure. In addition, in 1340 normotensive men ages 27-64 years from the Gas Company and in 871 normotensive men ages 40-55 years from the Western Electric Company, a significant prospective relationship was shown, for the first time, between heavy drinking and risk of developing high blood pressure. In the Gas Company, among 1233 men ages 40-59 years, 38 problem drinkers had significantly higher 15-year mortality from all causes, the cardiovascular diseases and coronary heart disease than the rest of the men. In the Western Electric study, 78 men who consumed six or more drinks per day had significantly higher 17-year mortality from all causes, the cardiovascular diseases and coronary heart disease, cancer and all other causes than the rest of all men.