A surprising new addition to blood pressure guidelines
For as long as you can probably remember, you have always been told it’s OK to drink alcohol in moderation. But new guidelines say otherwise if you have or want to avoid high blood pressure.
Newly released high blood pressure guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology still include many familiar heart health prevention tips but now list a stricter take on alcohol consumption. They recommend ideally abstaining from alcohol entirely or drastically cutting back on your normal consumption to help prevent or treat high blood pressure, which is defined as a reading of 130 mm Hg /80 mm Hg or higher. Unmanaged high blood pressure can contribute to conditions like heart attack, heart disease and stroke.
Previously, AHA guidelines from 2017 recommended that men limit their alcohol consumption to two drinks per day and one drink per day for women, if any. If you do choose to drink alcohol, this recommendation stands true. However, it’s still best to keep your intake minimal to prevent negative health consequences.
Dr. Prentiss Taylor, an internal medicine physician at Advocate Health Care and a member of the national committee that produced the new guidelines, explains why the change was made: “Newly published research studies analyzed 19,548 participants in multiple countries which showed a convincing linear increase in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure with any level of alcohol intake. The new guidelines encourage health care providers to start asking patients who have unexpectedly high blood pressure about their drinking habits. This wasn’t as big of a focus before but is now seen as a major contributing lifestyle factor.”
Other contributing lifestyle factors:
- Eating a diet high in sodium or saturated fats
- Smoking
- Lack of physical activity
- Stress
- Lack of sleep
If you do decide to cut back on alcohol, it’s important to make sure you are following correct portion sizes.
“The official definition of ‘one drink’ is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits,” Dr. Taylor explains. “However, in the U.S., we are used to large food and beverage portion sizes where it’s common that ‘one’ serving is actually the equivalent to two drinks. I personally have modified my own pouring habits to sip one-fourth of a glass of wine slowly to be better at counting my alcohol intake.”
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About the Author
health enews leader, is on the digital content team at Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care. She received her Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Illinois State University and has worked in health care public relations for six years. In her free time, she enjoys working out, finding the nearest coffee shop, exploring new places with her friends and family, and keeping up with the latest social media trends.
I wish you would stress the importance of using the ABV rating on alcoholic beverages. Merely stating that a 12 oz glass of beer is one drink is quite misleading.
One “drink” is 0.6 oz of alcohol. Period,
The wine is assumed to be 12% ABV and the beer 5%, Most of my favorite IPA style beers are in the 7% ABV range and there still are imperial beers in the 9% up to 12%. That does give you quite a kick but ONE of those beers can be 3-4 calculated drinks.
I still love my beers but for diet and cardiac reasons now limiting myself to a treat only once every month or so. And, after cutting down dramatically around 5 years ago, my tolerance has slipped and one good glass of beer is about all I can take and still feel “drive-able”.
Thanks for bringing this topic to readers and I hope more people who drink a lot (even NORMAL amounts based on the old standards) will change their habits and enjoy an alcohol free day or three. My drink at restaurants now is an unsweetened ice tea!
“The things that soothe you mentally and spiritually destroy you physically. It’s so unfair.”
~Comedian Jan Hooks commenting on the pleasure she experiences from smoking and drinking. She was probably the funniest of all the comics to emerge from the pantheon of Saturday Live performers. She passed away at age 57.