Hypertension and chronic ethanol consumption: What do we know after a century of study?

Table 1 List of the main epidemiological studies describing the relationship between ethanol consumption and hypertension

Ref.	Year	Study	Subjects	Age (yr)
Lian[1]	1915		150	42-43
Clark et al[2]	1967	Los angeles heart	865	211
Gyntelberg et al[3]	1974	Copenhagen	5249	40-59
Klatsky et al[4]	1977	Kaiser-Permanente I	83947	15-79
Dyer et al[5]	1977	Chicago W. Electric	1899	40-55
Arkwright et al[6]	1982	Perth	491	20-45
Milon et al[7]	1982	Lyon	1134	20-59
Klatsky et al[10]	1986	Kaiser-Permanente II	66510	-

¹Mean age.

Table 2 Summary of the main mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced hypertension

Ref.	Mechanism
[17,18]	Increase in sympathetic nervous system activity
[20]	Stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system
	Myogenic mechanism:
[31,32,36-42]	Enhanced vascular reactivity to vasoconstrictor agents
[33,41,44-46]	Impairment of the vascular relaxation
	Oxidative stress:
[70-77]	Increase in reactive oxygen species generation
[81,82,85-87]	Reduction of antioxidant systems
[28,44,52,95-102]	Decrease of nitric oxide bioavailability and endothelial dysfunction