MedWire News: Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced risk of heart failure in men with high blood pressure (hypertension), researchers have found.

Dr Luc Djoussé and Dr Michael Gaziano from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, explain: "Although alcohol drinking increases blood pressure and heavy drinking has been associated with alcoholic cardiomyopathy [heart damage], little is known about the association between light to moderate drinking and risk of heart failure in hypertensive subjects."

The researchers therefore studied data on 5152 male doctors, aged an average of 58 years, with high blood pressure. Of these, 70% reported having at least one alcoholic drink a week.

In total, 478 participants developed heart failure over an average monitoring period of 18 years.

Analysis revealed that men with hypertension who consumed at least one alcoholic drink a week were significantly less likely to develop heart failure than those who drank alcohol less often.

Compared with participants who rarely or never drank alcohol, those who consumed one to four drinks a week were 11% less likely to develop heart failure, those who consumed five to seven drinks a week 28% less likely to develop the condition and participants who consumed eight or more drinks a week had a 68% lower risk of the disease.

The findings remained true after accounting for factors such as age, body mass index, smoking habits, use of multivitamins and physical activity levels, notes the team.

"Our data suggested that light to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower risk of heart failure in hypertensive male physicians," Drs Djoussé and Gaziano conclude in the American Journal of Cardiology.