A number of people who like to drink find that their blood pressure drops when they drink, and sometimes their blood pressure is normal. So, can a small amount of alcohol lower your blood pressure? Today we will answer the question! First, the relationship between alcohol and blood pressure shows a “U-shaped” after drinking, the ethanol in the wine into the body, will act directly on the smooth muscle of the blood vessels, so that blood pressure is reduced. In addition, the oxidation and metabolism of ethanol dehydrogenase in the liver becomes acetaldehyde, acetaldehyde has a capillary dilatation function, subcutaneous capillary expansion, blood pooling in the periphery, so that blood pressure is reduced. This time is very short. Within 3 to 5 hours of first drinking, blood pressure generally decreases to varying degrees. However, this phenomenon does not last long. After 4~5 hours, blood vessels start to contract again, vascular resistance gradually increases, and blood pressure appears to rebound and increase, which is more likely to induce hypertensive emergencies. If a large amount of alcohol is consumed over a long period of time, it can increase blood pressure at night and cause damage to important target organs such as the heart, brain and kidneys due to the dysregulation of the circadian rhythm of blood pressure fluctuations. In addition to raising blood pressure, long-term heavy drinking and acute alcoholism can put the blood in a hypercoagulable state leading to stroke! Alcohol contains more calories, which can increase weight and lead to overweight or even obesity, which is also a major risk factor for hypertension. Second, can people with high blood pressure drink alcohol? How much is appropriate to drink every day For hypertensive people, both domestic and international guidelines for the prevention and treatment of hypertension recommend that alcohol should be abstained from drinking, and when it is impossible to avoid drinking alcohol, the amount of alcohol consumed by hypertensive patients should be limited to less than 25mL per day, and it is of course best to abstain from drinking. Different types of alcohol have different effects on the rise of blood pressure: wine has a smaller effect on systolic blood pressure, beer has a smaller effect on diastolic blood pressure, and white wine (those with higher alcohol content) has a stronger effect on the rise of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Hypertensive patients must stop drinking alcohol within 3 hours before and after taking antihypertensive drugs. Lixinping, captopril, cardiac pain and other antihypertensive drugs are vasodilators, drinking after taking is prone to hypotensive shock; compound antihypertensive tablets, eugenol and other antihypertensive drugs, drinking after taking will cause a sudden rise in blood pressure, headache, vomiting, palpitations and other severe reactions, and in serious cases can lead to brain hemorrhage and sudden death. Third, long-term alcohol consumption is hazardous to health For young people aged 20 to 24 years old, a large number of drinkers, compared with a small amount of alcohol or non-drinkers, systolic blood pressure increased by 2 to 4 mmHg, the risk of future hypertension will also increase. According to the data, 1/10 of men with hypertension are addicted to alcohol. The blood pressure level of alcohol drinkers is significantly higher than that of non-drinkers, especially the systolic pressure. 30mL of alcohol per day can raise the systolic pressure by 4mmHg and diastolic pressure by 2mmHg, and the prevalence of hypertension is 50%. These data are sufficient to show that abstinence from alcohol is crucial to both the prevention and treatment of hypertension.