The association of alcohol consumption and hypertension

A review of the literature on the association of alcohol consumption and hypertension shows increasing attention to this topic. The diversity in the nature of the populations studied leads to problems in comparisons across studies, and the differences in the measurement of alcohol consumption and the variety of research designs have led to problems in ascertaining the true relationship between levels of alcohol consumption and blood pressure. An historical review shows an increasing tendency for the assertion of a positive relationship, although the question of threshold effects and the physiological mechanism underlying the association remain unclear. Recent studies have shown the existence of a relationship in well-controlled studies of cohorts of workers, and numerous confounding factors have been adjusted for in the analyses. However, many questions remain in asserting a causal relationship between alcohol consumption and elevated blood pressure in general populations, given the relative dearth of findings for the female population as well as for various other subgroups.