Britain Grapples with Drinking-Related Hypertension

Treatment for high blood pressure as a result of binge drinking has increased 74 percent in five years in the U.K., the Daily Mail reported June 28. 

Hospitals treated approximately 330,000 patients for drinking-related hypertension in 2008-2009, up from 191,000 in 2004-2005, according the U.K. Department of Health. 

One in five Britons suffer from high blood pressure, and the country’s notorious pub culture a likely factor: Men who drink more than eight servings of alcohol per day quadruple their risk of hypertension, while women who drink more than six per day double their risk. 

“Sadly,” said June Davison, of the British Heart Foundation, “these figures show thousands of people a week end up in hospital because their drinking habits are putting too much pressure on their cardiovascular system.”