Despite its heart benefits, drinking red wine raises blood pressure to the same degree as drinking beer, according to a small study involving men with normal blood pressure.

“A positive relationship between alcohol consumption and blood pressure is well established, but the relative effect of specific alcoholic beverages is controversial,” Dr. Renate R. Zilkens, of the University of Western Australia, Perth, and colleagues write in the medical journal hypertension.

The researchers examined the effects of beer, red wine, and de-alcoholized wine consumption on the blood pressure of 28 healthy, nonsmoking men - 24 of whom completed the study.

The men undertook during four 4-week periods, in random order, to abstain from alcohol or to drink 375 milliliters of red wine (about half a bottle) daily, the same amount of de-alcoholized red wine or 1125 milliliters of beer.

No differences in the upper and lower readings of blood pressure or heart rate were observed between the abstinence period and the time when the men drank de-alcoholized red wine.

However, consumption of red wine and beer increased the upper blood pressure by 2.9 and 1.9 points, respectively. The men’s heart rates while they slept were also increased.

“Regardless of source, alcohol consumption, above a certain threshold level, raises blood pressure, and this effect does not appear to be counteracted by other components of wine,” Dr. Flavio D. Fuchs at the Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil, notes in a related editorial.

“In view of the large risk for cardiovascular disease attributable to blood pressure above 115/75,” he adds, “physicians should caution their patients against excess alcohol consumption.”

SOURCE: Hypertension, May 2005.