Can I drink red wine if I have high blood pressure?
If you have high blood pressure, avoid alcohol or drink alcohol only in moderation. For healthy adults, that means up to one drink a day for women and up to two drinks a day for men.
What is the best red wine to drink if you have high blood pressure?
Merlot. Much easier to come by, Merlot is a medium-bodied red wine with notes of black cherry and plum. The second most popular wine grape in the world, Merlot has high levels of resveratrol and procyanidin which help to lower cholesterol and promote cardiovascular health.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a condition in which the force of blood against your artery walls is too high. Eventually, uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to heart failure. In addition to blood pressure medications and lifestyle changes, red wine may be an appropriate supplement to improve your blood pressure. Before drinking red wine, consult your physician to make sure that the alcohol in red wine will not alter the effects of your medications.
Drinking red wine regularly may increase your HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, states the American Heart Association. HDL is the "good" cholesterol that removes plaques from your arteries, thus lowering blood pressure. The effect of increasing HDL is from the alcohol in the red wine. Over time, this small increase in HDL can reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease.
An added benefit of drinking red wine is that it may reduce blood clots, states the American Heart Association. Blood clots form when platelets clump together in the blood. Excessive blood-clot formation in the arteries can worsen plaques and increase blood pressure. Resveratrol is a polyphenol found in red wine that may have anti-clotting properties, thus reducing your risk for developing a blood clot and leading to a positive effect on blood pressure.
A serving of red wine at night can help you relax and relieve stress because it slows down activity in the nervous system. Stress can raise blood pressure and increase your risk for cardiovascular disease. You should not, however, begin drinking red wine to lower your blood pressure or for stress relief if you do not already drink alcohol. Men should not consume more than two drinks per day, and women should limit alcohol intake to one drink per day.
Red Wine and Heart Health
Red wine is high in antioxidants, including resveratrol, a compound produced by some plants. It can be found in the skin of grapes — more so in red wine than white wine —as well as in blueberries, cranberries, chocolate and peanuts. Resveratrol is also available in supplement form.
This antioxidant may help prevent cardiovascular disease by neutralizing free oxygen radicals and reactive nitrogenous radicals, according to research published in July 2018 in the journal Molecules. It crosses the blood-brain barrier and thereby has protective benefits for the brain and nerve cells. Resveratrol also may help protect against the formation of blood clots, or thrombi, which block the normal flow of blood.
