News Release

It's OK for men with high blood pressure to have a drink or two, new study finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

American College of Physicians

PHILADELPHIA, January 2, 2007 - A prospective cohort study of nearly 12,000 men with hypertension found that men who drank moderately had reduced risk of heart attacks.

A glass of beer, a glass of wine, or a shot of liquor each counts as one drink.

Moderate consumption of alcohol is known to be linked to a lower risk of heart disease. But, since alcohol can increase blood pressure, would the same be true for men who have high blood pressure?

The new study, published in the January 2, 2007, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, is based on data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. It found that men with high blood pressure can have one or two drinks a day without increasing risk for heart attack or stroke.

"Men diagnosed with hypertension probably get a lot of advice on how to change their lifestyle, physical activity, and diet," said Joline Beulens, MSc, the study's lead author. "This study indicates that if they drink alcohol in moderation they may not need to change their drinking habits."

Beulens reiterated that alcohol consumption of more than three drinks a day raises blood pressure and risk of hypertension, "so our findings are not a license for men with hypertension to overindulge."

Beulens was a PhD-fellow at TNO Quality of Life and Wageningen University in the Netherlands at the time of the study and was working as a visiting scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health, which sponsors the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

An accompanying editorial, by Victor Kipnis, PhD, at the National Cancer Institute, and others, discusses measurement error in nutritional epidemiology studies. Because of the current limitations of procedures and reference instruments, the editorial writers say, "we cannot assume that corrected estimates of diet-disease associations in any single study are definitive."

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The study ("Alcohol Consumption and Risk for Coronary Heart Disease among Men with Hypertension") and an accompanying editorial ("Is It Necessary to Correct for Measurement Error in Nutritional Epidemiology?") are published in the January 2, 2007, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The article and editorial are available to the public on January 2 at www.annals.org.

Annals of Internal Medicine (www.annals.org) is one of the most widely cited peer-reviewed medical journals in the world. The journal has been published for 80 years and accepts only 7 percent of the original research studies submitted for publication. Annals of Internal Medicine is published by the American College of Physicians (www.acponline.org), the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States.

ACP members include 120,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults.

IMPORTANT! PLEASE REQUEST ARTICLE ON DEC. 21-22 OR ON JAN. 2, 2007. ACP and Annals of Internal Medicine will be closed beginning Dec. 23, reopening Jan. 2, 2007. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. To reach Ms. Beulens: J.Beulens@umcutrecht.nl. To reach Dr. Eric Rimm, another author, call Todd Datz at the Harvard School of Public Health (617-432-3952).

2. This article is the subject of a video news release from the American College of Physicians.


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