ALCOHOL AND HYPERTENSION: AN OLD RELATIONSHIP REVISITED

( Received 4 May 2005; first review notified 11 July 2005; in revised form 20 September 2005; accepted 21 September 2005 )The American comedian Henny Youngman (1906–1998) once said, ‘When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.’ Ironic, but interestingly as though with a sense of foresight, he did not speak of giving up drinking! It is despite the fact that alcohol is responsible for increased illness, being causally related to more than 60 different medical conditions (Rehm et al ., 2003). Around 4% of the global disease burden is also thought to be alcohol related, which is comparable with that attributed to the effects of tobacco (4.1%) and high blood pressure (4.4%) (Ezzati et al ., 2002; WHO, 2002).For most diseases related to alcohol consumption, a dose–response relationship exists with risk of the disease increasing with greater amounts of alcohol intake, with cardiovascular disease being a possible exception. Apart from being linked to disease, alcohol is also associated with violent crime and aggression under certain circumstances (Room and Rossow, 2001).The relationship between alcohol and cardiovascular disease, especially hypertension and coronary heart disease, is not as clear-cut. In France, the prevalence of coronary artery disease is lower—although their diets and their dietary fat content remain the similar—compared with many other Western countries. This was attributed to their tradition of wine drinking and these observations led to the so-called French paradox (Renaud and de Lorgeril, 1992) and an often-used excuse to enjoy a nice Bordeaux with every meal.However, both cross-sectional and prospective epidemiological studies …