Why the study?
Does moderate ethanol consumption alter blood pressure and plasma noradrenaline kinetics in normotensive men?
Does moderate ethanol consumption alter blood pressure and plasma noradrenaline kinetics in normotensive men?
Regular moderate ethanol consumption raises blood pressure and plasma noradrenaline levels, but this appears driven by reduced clearance rather than a generalized increase in sympathetic activity.
Ethanol raises blood pressure in normotensive men; extends mechanistic understanding by implicating reduced noradrenaline clearance over increased release.
Normotensive male volunteers (n = 8) either abstained from ethanol for 4 days or consumed 66 g of ethanol per day in an open, crossed, random order study. Mean arterial pressures rose by an average of 5.4 mmHg following the ethanol phase of the study (P less than 0.001). Plasma noradrenaline (NA) concentration was higher during ethanol ingestion (P less than 0.01), principally because of a significant reduction in NA clearance of -1.51 l min-1 m-2 (P less than 0.05). In contrast, NA spillover or release rates did not significantly differ between the two study periods. Total plasma calcium levels were significantly lower (P less than 0.05) following the ethanol compared to the control period. These data do not appear to support the proposition that regular alcohol consumption raises blood pressure by producing a generalised increase in sympathetic activity.
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Howes et al. (1986) studied this question.
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