Although drinking and smoking are recognized as bad habits, drinking and smoking are not the same. There has always been controversy about drinking. Since ancient times, wine culture has been popular in our country, and liquor has also been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for health care. So to this day, many people still believe that drinking in moderation is beneficial.

Many middle-aged and elderly people, even if they are already suffering from chronic diseases, never take drinking as a big deal. They will ignore the doctor's advice to stop drinking and continue to drink. For example, among patients with high blood pressure, a considerable number of people believe that drinking alcohol can lower blood pressure. Drinking a small amount of wine every day is not harmful to the body, but beneficial.

68-year-old Uncle Wang used to think so.

Uncle Wang is still a relatively cautious person. He listens to the doctor's advice and does a good job in taking medicine and eating. Because his father died of high blood pressure, he would do anything he thought would be good for managing blood pressure. Only in drinking, he went against the doctor's orders.

It’s not that I can’t quit, mainly because Uncle Wang firmly believes in the saying that “drinking can lower blood pressure.” He likes to read some health-preserving knowledge, and often sees some articles on the Internet saying that drinking alcohol can also protect the cardiovascular system. Therefore, he has always felt that there is no need to drink alcohol if you have high blood pressure. In order to prove his point of view, he was cautious and conducted an experiment.

One night, he took his blood pressure before eating and it was about 150/94mmHg. We started eating half an hour later. We didn’t eat much. We added more than 3 taels of white wine to go with the wine. After drinking, we ate a few dumplings. It took almost half an hour to eat. Then he immediately checked his blood pressure, and there was no change. I measured my blood pressure again after 1 hour and found that the blood pressure began to drop. After measuring it 2 hours later, I found that the blood pressure had dropped to 138/83mmHg.

The difference between the two measurements was only about 3 hours, and the blood pressure dropped from 150/94mmHg to 138/83mmHg. To be honest, Uncle Wang himself was shocked. Is it possible that drinking alcohol has a better antihypertensive effect than antihypertensive drugs?

It is because of this experiment that Uncle Wang’s view on drinking has been strengthened - drinking can lower blood pressure!

At first glance, Uncle Wang’s experimental results did bring surprises to patients with hypertension. But what are the facts? Let Pharmacist Wang analyze it for everyone.

First of all, Uncle Wang only tested the results 2 hours after drinking.

Drinking alcohol can indeed lower blood pressure. This is because alcohol dilates blood vessels. Its antihypertensive principle is the same as that of calcium antagonists that dilate blood vessels. However, alcohol and antihypertensive drugs differ in two ways.

1. Differences in blood pressure reducing effects.

The antihypertensive effect of antihypertensive drugs is sustained, especially long-acting preparations. One tablet can maintain the effect for 24 hours. However, the antihypertensive effect of alcohol is temporary, lasting up to 5 hours, and then Blood pressure will rebound and rise even higher than before drinking. In the long run, taking antihypertensive drugs is the only effective way to control blood pressure, but drinking alcohol will increase blood pressure. Research shows that drinking 2-3 taels of white wine a day can increase systolic blood pressure by an average of 3.5mmHg, and diastolic blood pressure. The average increase was 2.1mmHg. The greater the amount of alcohol consumed, the greater the increase in blood pressure. If Uncle Wang continues to measure, he will find that the dropped blood pressure will soon continue to rise.

2. Differences in side effects.

Even if antihypertensive drugs have certain side effects, they are clearly controllable and rarely occur. Even if they occur, they are very mild and mainly affect the stomach, liver, kidneys, etc. However, alcohol not only damages the liver and stomach, but also directly damages blood vessels, making them thinner and harder, accelerating the risk of cardiovascular complications. This is undoubtedly fatal to hypertensive patients who are already at high cardiovascular risk. harm. Not only that, drinking alcohol will also affect the antihypertensive effect of antihypertensive drugs, which is also detrimental to blood pressure management.

Secondly, blood pressure itself also has a circadian rhythm.

Besides, Uncle Wang did the experiment at night, and this period of time is a process of gradual decrease in blood pressure. Under normal circumstances, blood pressure fluctuations within 24 hours a day will show a "two peaks and one trough" phenomenon. The first peak is after getting up in the morning, and the second peak is around 4-6 pm. Therefore, the blood pressure value measured by Uncle Wang before dinner may be the peak value in the afternoon. After the peak value, the blood pressure will slowly drop, reaching the lowest value between 0-2 o'clock in the evening.

From this point of view, it is not a miracle that Uncle Wang measured his blood pressure after drinking and found that his blood pressure plummeted. This is also related to the fluctuation pattern of blood pressure itself.

In short, patients with hypertension should not be fooled by temporary illusions, but should see the overall benefits and risks. The reliable conclusion given by current research is that drinking alcohol not only does not lower blood pressure, but is also an independent risk factor for inducing hypertension and cardiovascular events. The safest amount of alcohol consumption should be no alcohol at all!

As for those people who drink all year round and still live to be 99 years old, we must understand clearly that these are just special cases! Just a special case! Not representative! What we have seen should be the vast majority. It is wise to learn from them and quit drinking as soon as possible!