The science on the virtues of having a small serving of alcohol a day has been strong for decades. Until now. It seems that ANY alcohol has deleterious effects. The more alcohol the more the damage. This is a resounding vindication for teetotalers, unless further studies swing the pendulum back to the middle.
BTW, I drink a beer about twice a week and a glass of wine with a nice dinner about once a month. I am not likely to stop that because the social strokes I get outweigh any potential harm, at least in my heart. Besides, my blood pressure is normal. See references ando google Roseto, Pennsylvania and Italian immigrants.
Blood pressure and stroke risk increase with alcohol consumption
“Reuters (4/4, Kelland) reports that “blood pressure and stroke risk rise steadily the more alcohol people drink, and previous claims that one or two drinks a day might protect against stroke are not true, according to the results of a major genetic study” published in The Lancet. The study “found that people who drink moderately – consuming 10 to 20 grams of alcohol a day – raise their risk of stroke by 10 to 15 percent.” For heavy drinkers, who consume “four or more drinks a day, blood pressure rises significantly and the risk of stroke increases by around 35 percent, the study found.” The AP (4/4, Cheng) reports that researchers “weren’t able to figure out, though, whether small amounts of alcohol might also increase the chances of a heart attack.”
Moderate Drinking Tied to Risk of Stage 1, 2 Hypertension
Medscape – Mar 13, 2019.
“Studies have established that heavy drinkers are more likely to have hypertension compared with non-drinkers, and now new research confirms the link to high blood pressure and extends the finding to those consuming moderate amounts of alcohol. In a snapshot of a national sample of adult Americans, researchers found that compared to abstainers, men and women who drank 7 to 13 alcoholic drinks a week (moderate drinkers) were 1.5 times as likely to have stage 1 hypertension and twice as likely to have stage 2 hypertension, based on criteria in the new 2017 ACC/AHA hypertension guidelines. Heavy drinkers (14 or more drinks per week) had a similar, slightly higher risk of having stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension vs abstainers.”
