No benefit from alcohol intake reduction found for controlling hypertension

High blood pressure constitutes one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity all over the world. At the same time, heavy drinking increases the risk for developing cardiovascular diseases, including cardiomyopathy, hypertension, atrial arrhythmias, or stroke. Several studies have already assessed specifically the relationship between alcohol intake and hypertension. However, the potential effect on blood pressure of alcohol intake reduction interventions is largely unknown.
A study evaluated whether intervention to reduce alcohol intake has a greater impact than other kinds of interventions (or no intervention at all) in reducing blood pressure in people with high blood pressure and alcohol consumption.
Research databases were searched for relevant studies. A total of 1210 studies were screened. One randomised controlled trial involving a total of 269 participants with a two‐year follow‐up was included. The researchers assessed data to identify differences in blood pressure, number of deaths and serious diseases between a group of people receiving psychological assistance to reduce alcohol intake and people not receiving this assistance.
Based on this limited information, although those participants who received psychological assistance were able to reduce their alcohol intake more than those without such assistance, no differences were found in the number of deaths, total heart problems and total vascular problems between people receiving psychological assistance to decrease alcohol intake and those not receiving such help. There was also found no differences in blood pressure reduction.
The authors conclude that an intervention for decreasing alcohol intake consumption did not result in differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressure when compared with a control intervention, although there was a reduction in alcohol intake favouring the active intervention. No differences were found either for overall mortality, cardiovascular mortality or cardiovascular events. No data on serious adverse events or quality of life were available to assess. Adequate randomised controlled trials are needed to provide additional evidence on this specific question.
Source: Acin MT, Rueda JR, Saiz LC, Parent Mathias V, Alzueta N, Solà I, Garjón J, Erviti J. Alcohol in-take reduction for controlling hypertension. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Sep 21;9:CD010022.