The evidence

Alcohol and blood pressure, with and without drinking

By GyroscopeUpdated November 15, 20266 sources

Alcohol raises blood pressure in a straight line, and nobody has found an amount where it starts. Across seven studies of 19,548 adults, the top number ran about 1.25 points (mmHg) higher at 12 g a day, under one US drink, and 4.9 points higher at 48 g, about three and a half drinks, against people who didn’t drink. It comes down fast when you stop.

Blood pressure is one of the quickest of these risks to improve. A drink doesn’t feel like it does anything to your pressure, and the number after a quiet night seems fine. But pressure is an average over years, and a small push every day adds up. NIAAA’s summary for doctors says even one to two drinks a day is linked to higher blood pressure.

What the chart shows

A 2023 analysis pooled seven long studies in healthy adults, followed for a median of about five years, and asked how much blood pressure changed by how much people drank at the start. The rise was “substantially linear,” with no sign of a threshold. The top number (systolic) was 1.25 points higher at 12 g a day and 4.90 higher at 48 g. The bottom number (diastolic) was 1.14 and 3.10 points higher. The pattern held in men and women, and in Asian and North American studies.

That’s an average rise in people who didn’t start with high blood pressure. For someone whose pressure is already up, a few points can be the difference between medicine and no medicine.

The genetic evidence

Studies that ask people what they drink can’t rule out every other difference between drinkers and non-drinkers. Genetic studies get around that. In 512,715 adults in China, men whose genes made them drink more had higher blood pressure in step with how much more, just like men who reported drinking more. In 261,991 Europeans, people with a gene variant that made them drink less had systolic pressure about 0.9 points lower. Both point to alcohol itself raising pressure.

What stopping does

In 94 moderate to heavy drinkers who took a month off, averaging about 18 US drinks a week before, systolic pressure fell 6.6% and diastolic 6.3%. A group of 47 who kept drinking saw no change. For someone at 140, a 6.6% drop is about 9 points. It was a small, single-center study, and people chose which group to be in.

Test it on yourself

You don’t have to take a study’s word for it. Measure your blood pressure at home for a week of your usual drinking, twice each morning before coffee, sitting still for five minutes first. Then do the same in the last week of a dry month. Compare the averages, not single numbers, since pressure moves a lot from one measurement to the next. If the dry week is lower by more than a couple of points, you’ve found out what drinking costs your pressure, in your own numbers.

What we’d do

If your blood pressure is high or creeping up, cut alcohol before you add anything else, and check your numbers at home before and after a dry month. That’s a cheap, fast test of how much drinking is doing to you. If your pressure is normal, it’s still one more reason to keep drinks few and far between. bloodpressure.guide has how to measure it well at home and the next-morning rise after a drinking night.

If you drink heavily every day, talk to a doctor before you stop, because withdrawal can become dangerous. People on blood pressure medicines should ask their doctor about alcohol, since the 2025-2030 US Dietary Guidelines say people on medicines that interact with alcohol should avoid it.