According to a study by Public Health France, exceeding recommendations for alcohol consumption, no more than ten drinks per week, contributes to hundreds of thousands of cases of hypertension in France.
- Alcohol is one of the risk factors for high blood pressure.
- According to a study by Santé Publique France, 655,000 cases are linked to excessive consumption in France.
- Men are more affected than women.
Excessive alcohol consumption is bad for cardiovascular health. In his last Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin, Public Health France explains that many cases of hypertension are linked to alcohol in France. “We estimate that 655,000 people aged 18 to 74 in France are hypertensive due to alcohol consumption exceeding an average of 10 drinks per week, including 624,000 men and 31,000 women.concludes the organization.
Hypertension and alcohol: links identified for a long time
Alcohol is one of the known risk factors for high blood pressure, such as age or family history. In France, the last research on the links between alcohol and hypertension dates from 1987. However, since 2017, alcohol consumption benchmarks have been established by Santé Publique France and the National Cancer Institute: it is recommended not to consume more than 10 standard glasses per week, without exceeding two per day and to have days without consumption. Trials have shown the benefits of reducing alcohol consumption on blood pressure, but they also found that they were no longer significant when consumption was equal to or less than two drinks per day.
What is the impact of alcohol on the risk of high blood pressure?
For this reason, researchers have been interested in the effects of alcohol as a risk factor. “The objective of our study was to estimate the fraction of cases of arterial hypertension occurring before age 75 attributable to alcohol consumption exceeding the first component of the lowest risk consumption benchmarks (i.e. more than 10 glasses per week) in France according to age, sex, as well as the number of associated hypertensive people”specify the authors of this new work.
This study is based on a method called “attributable fraction approach”, which made it possible to estimate the number of people whose hypertension is due to excessive alcohol consumption. They therefore identified 655,000 cases linked to exceeding ten glasses per week. This corresponds to 5.5% of the total number of hypertensive people in France.
Hypertension and alcohol: differences between men and women
“Our study demonstrated a significant difference in the fraction attributable to alcohol for high blood pressure between men and women with a much greater fraction attributable to alcohol in men.observe the authors. This mainly results from the greater alcohol consumption of men compared to women. They also note that the “episodes of binge drinking and heavy drinking” are more often observed in men than in women.
High blood pressure: a risk of cardiovascular complications
Whatever its origin, high blood pressure can be dangerous for your health. “High blood pressure exposes you to cardiovascular complications such as stroke and acute coronary syndromes but also to chronic kidney failure, heart failure, heart rhythm disorders or severe neurocognitive disorders., recalls Public Health France. In total, 17 million people are affected by it in France.