Middle-aged men who drink heavily have elevated blood pressure even when they have high levels of "good" cholesterol in their systems, the Health Behavior News Service reported Aug. 27.

Researcher Ichiro Wakabayashi of Hyogo College of Medicine in Japan reported that men over age 50 appear to be more vulnerable to high blood pressure resulting from heavy drinking than young men. Experts said that the findings show that while drinking alcohol can be good for the heart and increase levels of HDL cholesterol, in some cases drinking can offset such benefits by raising blood pressure.

"This really fits well with the observation that the risk of stroke — which is more sensitive to blood pressure than heart attack — is not really substantially lower in moderate drinkers," noted Kenneth Mukamal, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The findings appear in the September 2007 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.