Role of alcoholic beverages in essential hypertensive patients

To evaluate the importance of alcohol and other environmental factors in essential hypertensives, we conducted a cross-sectional study on 627 patients (322 women, 305 men) subdivided in four subgroups according to sex and presence or absence of drug therapy, to evaluate differences due to drugs and changes in life style. Multiple regression analyses were run where systolic and diastolic blood pressures were considered as separate dependent variables with the following independent variables: age, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol and coffee consumption, smoking, educational level; considered as continuous or categorical variables. eighty-eight per cent of all patients showed a moderate-low alcohol intake (1-50 g/day); wine was the preferred beverage. We found a negative independent relationship between mild/moderate alcohol consumption levels and systolic blood pressure in untreated men and untreated women, and no relationship between alcohol and diastolic blood pressure in all subgroups considered. Body mass index and age were positively associated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Our data suggest that mild to moderate alcohol consumption does not affect blood pressure control in either treated or untreated hypertensive patients.