a study highlights the risks of excessive alcohol consumption

In France, around one in three adults suffer from hypertension, or around 17 million people. Several risk factors have been identified, such as age, family history, low physical activity, a diet high in salt and low in fruits and vegetables, obesity but also alcohol consumption, which is confirmed by a published study. Tuesday April 30 by Public health France (SPF).

To better measure the weight of alcohol, the public health agency sought to estimate the number of cases of hypertension attributable to consumption exceeding the recommended limits among 18-74 year olds. To limit the health impact of alcohol, lower-risk consumption benchmarks (maximum ten drinks per week, maximum two drinks per day, and days during the week without consumption) have been defined since 2017 and communicated regularly Since.

Some 655,000 cases of high blood pressure before the age of 75 “would be linked to alcohol consumption exceeding an average of ten drinks per week in mainland France”, including 624,000 men and 31,000 women, estimates the study published in a weekly epidemiological bulletin. Due to the lack of recent data on the frequency of hypertension overseas, the study is limited to mainland France.

There “significant difference” between men and women results mainly, according to researchers, from greater alcohol consumption by men compared to women, but also from episodes of “binge drinking” (getting massively drunk in a short time) and massive alcoholism more frequent.

Consumption falling but still high

Although they recognize certain methodological limits to their study, its authors see it as “a minimum estimate of cases of high blood pressure attributable to alcohol consumption which turns out to be very high, and based on two robust and representative surveys of the French population, the Esteban health examination survey and the Baromètre de Public Health France ».

Faced with these results, the health agency emphasizes the importance of preventing alcohol consumption but also of managing hypertension.

Alcohol remains one of the leading risk factors for illness and death in France, with more than 40,000 attributable deaths. In addition to cardiovascular risks and cirrhosis, the consumption of alcoholic beverages increases the risk of certain cancers.

“If the French have reduced their alcohol consumption over the past thirty years, consumption levels remain very high (…)both in the general population and among certain subpopulations, such as pregnant women”recalls the Director General of Public Health France, Caroline Semaille, in an editorial overseeing this epidemiological bulletin.