alcohol: even small amounts assoc with hypertension
A recent article analyzed prior hypertension studies and found a linear relationship between the amount of alcohol consumed and hypertension, with no safe lower limit of alcohol (see htn alcohol intake HTN2023 in dropbox, or DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.123.21224) Details : -- this study used a new type of meta-analysis, a dose-response one-stage meta-analysis for aggregated data, combining longitudinal studies in healthy adults that reported on the association between alcohol intake and blood pressure -- the included studies needed to be cohort or case-cohort investigations. Excluded studies included those with a cross-sectional design, those that had participants with previously diagnosed cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or cirrhosis, and those that only recruited participants with substantial alcohol use disorders or included binge drinkers -- seven studies were found with 19,548 participants and a median follow-up 5.3 years (range 4-12 years) -- three of the studies w