Does Alcohol Lower Blood Pressure?

Does Alcohol Lower Blood Pressure?
Alcohol actually has two effects on blood pressure. One of these effects was initially hidden from earlier researchers, because they often performed blood pressure measurements 12 to 15 hour after the original alcohol intake.

It turns out that this point coincides with the maximal effect that alcohol has increasing blood pressure.

However, when researches attached a monitor that took study participants’ blood pressures multiple times each hour and measured their blood pressure responses during the time immediately following alcohol ingestion, and then continued on to take their blood pressure measurements 12 to 15 hours or more after alcohol intake, a different picture emerged.

Shortly after alcohol ingestion, there is actually a decline in blood pressure. After a few hours, blood pressure returns to its baseline values. As some of the metabolites (the breakdown products of alcohol) the n enter into the circulation, there is actually an increase in blood pressure that is evident about 12 to 15 hours after the original alcohol ingestion.

Overall, the net effect of alcohol is an increase in blood pressure of about two points, or 2 mm Hg.

If you look at the blood pressure 12 to 15 hours after ingestion, this effect appears to be more like 6 mm Hg.

Because a 4 mm Hg decrease in blood pressure occurs after ingestion, however, the net increase from alcohol is actually about 2 mm Hg.
Does Alcohol Lower Blood Pressure?