Alcohol Consumption and Cardiovascular Risk: Unraveling Mechanisms, Methods, and Prevention in Human Populations

Participate in this topic

Submit your idea

Select the journal/section where you want your idea to be submitted:

Submit your manuscript summarySubmit your manuscript

About this Research Topic

Submission deadlines

  1. Manuscript Summary Submission Deadline 23 October 2025 | Manuscript Submission Deadline 10 February 2026

  2. This Research Topic is still accepting articles.

    1. Check author guidelines

Background

The relationship between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular diseases continues to generate debate within cardiovascular epidemiology and experimental studies. While early studies suggested protective associations for low-to-moderate drinking and increased risk with higher consumption, advances in epidemiological methodology have raised concerns about confounding and misclassification in previous findings. These developments have fueled a renewed need for rigorous human-focused research to clarify alcohol’s true effects on cardiovascular health, morbidity, and mortality.

This Research Topic aims to deepen the clinical and basic scientific understanding of how ethanol influences cardiovascular and arterial health. Given that cardiovascular diseases remain a leading cause of death globally and that alcohol consumption is a prevalent, modifiable behavior, clarifying its effects could provide crucial insights. This is particularly urgent in light of conflicting evidence about alcohol's biphasic effects on heart health, which is not yet fully understood.

Within this Research Topic, we invite submissions that comprehensively address the epidemiological, behavioral, biomarker, and prevention aspects of alcohol use in relation to cardiovascular diseases and related cardiometabolic outcomes. We are especially interested in epidemiological, clinical, or experimental studies that:

Evaluate behavioral, psychosocial, and lifestyle risk factors associated with alcohol use (e.g., drinking patterns, binge drinking) and their interaction with established cardiovascular risk profiles.
Investigate the association of alcohol consumption with biological risk factors, including blood pressure, dyslipidemia, glucose homeostasis, renal function, and other blood-based biomarkers, using data from human populations.
• Analyze the impact of alcohol use on genomics and other -omics molecular profiles in the context of cardiovascular risk, disease prediction, or prevention.
• Apply state-of-the-art epidemiological methods (e.g., prospective cohort studies, population-based registries, big data analytics) to not only improve the accuracy and generalizability of findings but, importantly, to strengthen causal inference regarding the relationship between alcohol use and cardiovascular outcomes. We particularly encourage studies employing innovative approaches to causal inference, such as genetic epidemiological methods (e.g., Mendelian Randomization), which have been pivotal in challenging assumptions about alcohol’s effects on cardiovascular disease risk. For example, several high-quality Mendelian Randomization studies have suggested that the observed association between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is unlikely to be causal.
• Examine the potential for competing risks—acknowledging that alcohol may exert both harmful and potentially beneficial effects, and that disentangling these separate effects remains a major challenge for cardiovascular research.
• Examine the role of alcohol use in global health, health disparities, and the effectiveness of public health prevention strategies targeting cardiovascular disease.
• Assess the impact of public health interventions, policy measures, and individualized approaches (pharmacologic or non-pharmacologic) that address alcohol-related cardiovascular risk.
• Advance understanding of risk stratification, prediction, and prognostication of cardiovascular disease incorporating alcohol as a modifiable lifestyle factor.
• Investigate the mechanisms whereby ethanol and its primary metabolite, acetaldehyde, induce cardiac, vascular or endothelial dysfunction.
• Explore cellular/molecular mechanisms in human subjects, animal models, and cell culture systems (endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, stem cells, myocytes, and monocytes/macrophages).
Submissions should ideally leverage data from clinical or cohort studies, population-based research, or health systems databases involving human participants. Studies on the mechanistic effects of alcohol and its components are welcome only if they directly link to clinical endpoints or risk prediction in human populations and contribute to understanding the prevention, treatment, or risk stratification of cardiovascular diseases.

The Topic Editors welcome original research articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and well-justified brief reports that advance knowledge of the determinants and prevention of cardiovascular disease, with particular attention to the multifaceted role of alcohol consumption.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

  • Brief Research Report
  • Case Report
  • Classification
  • Clinical Trial
  • Community Case Study
  • Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
  • Editorial
  • General Commentary
  • Hypothesis and Theory

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

  • Brief Research Report
  • Case Report
  • Classification
  • Clinical Trial
  • Community Case Study
  • Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
  • Editorial
  • General Commentary
  • Hypothesis and Theory
  • Methods
  • Mini Review
  • Opinion
  • Original Research
  • Perspective
  • Policy and Practice Reviews
  • Policy Brief
  • Review
  • Study Protocol
  • Systematic Review
  • Technology and Code

Keywords: alcohol consumption, cardiovascular diseases, risk factors, epidemiology, prevention, biomarkers, morbidity, mortality

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic editors

Frequently asked questions

  • Frontiers' Research Topics are collaborative hubs built around an emerging theme.Defined, managed, and led by renowned researchers, they bring communities together around a shared area of interest to stimulate collaboration and innovation.

    Unlike section journals, which serve established specialty communities, Research Topics are pioneer hubs, responding to the evolving scientific landscape and catering to new communities.

  • The goal of Frontiers' publishing program is to empower research communities to actively steer the course of scientific publishing. Our program was implemented as a three-part unit with fixed field journals, flexible specialty sections, and dynamically emerging Research Topics, connecting communities of different sizes and maturity.

    Research Topics originate from the scientific community. Many of our Research Topics are suggested by existing editorial board members who have identified critical challenges or areas of interest in their field.

  • As an editor, Research Topics will help you build your journal, as well as your community, around emerging, cutting-edge research. As research trailblazers, Research Topics attract high-quality submissions from leading experts all over the world.

    A thriving Research Topic can potentially evolve into a new specialty section if there is sustained interest and a growing community around it.

  • Each Research Topic must be approved by the specialty chief editor, and it falls under the editorial oversight of our editorial boards, supported by our in-house research integrity team. The same standards and rigorous peer review processes apply to articles published as part of a Research Topic as for any other article we publish.

    In 2023, 80% of the Research Topics we published were edited or co-edited by our editorial board members, who are already familiar with their journal's scope, ethos, and publishing model. All other topics are guest edited by leaders in their field, each vetted and formally approved by the specialty chief editor.

  • Publishing your article within a Research Topic with other related articles increases its discoverability and visibility, which can lead to more views, downloads, and citations. Research Topics grow dynamically as more published articles are added, causing frequent revisiting, and further visibility.

    As Research Topics are multidisciplinary, they are cross-listed in several fields and section journals – increasing your reach even more and giving you the chance to expand your network and collaborate with researchers in different fields, all focusing on expanding knowledge around the same important topic.

    Our larger Research Topics are also converted into ebooks and receive social media promotion from our digital marketing team.

     

  • Frontiers offers multiple article types, but it will depend on the field and section journals in which the Research Topic will be featured. The available article types for a Research Topic will appear in the drop-down menu during the submission process.

    Check available article types here 

  • Yes, we would love to hear your ideas for a topic. Most of our Research Topics are community-led and suggested by researchers in the field. Our in-house editorial team will contact you to talk about your idea and whether you’d like to edit the topic. If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. 

    Suggest your topic here 

  • A team of guest editors (called topic editors) lead their Research Topic. This editorial team oversees the entire process, from the initial topic proposal to calls for participation, the peer review, and final publications.

    The team may also include topic coordinators, who help the topic editors send calls for participation, liaise with topic editors on abstracts, and support contributing authors. In some cases, they can also be assigned as reviewers.

  • As a topic editor (TE), you will take the lead on all editorial decisions for the Research Topic, starting with defining its scope. This allows you to curate research around a topic that interests you, bring together different perspectives from leading researchers across different fields and shape the future of your field. 

     

    You will choose your team of co-editors, curate a list of potential authors, send calls for participation and oversee the peer review process, accepting or recommending rejection for each manuscript submitted.

  • As a topic editor, you're supported at every stage by our in-house team. You will be assigned a single point of contact to help you on both editorial and technical matters. Your topic is managed through our user-friendly online platform, and the peer review process is supported by our industry-first AI review assistant (AIRA).

  • If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. This provides you with valuable editorial experience, improving your ability to critically evaluate research articles and enhancing your understanding of the quality standards and requirements for scientific publishing, as well as the opportunity to discover new research in your field, and expand your professional network.

  • Yes, certificates can be issued on request. We are happy to provide a certificate for your contribution to editing a successful Research Topic.

  • Research Topics thrive on collaboration and their multi-disciplinary approach around emerging, cutting-edge themes, attract leading researchers from all over the world.

  • As a topic editor, you can set the timeline for your Research Topic, and we will work with you at your pace. Typically, Research Topics are online and open for submissions within a few weeks and remain open for participation for 6 – 12 months. Individual articles within a Research Topic are published as soon as they are ready.

    Find out more about our Research Topics

  • Our fee support program ensures that all articles that pass peer review, including those published in Research Topics, can benefit from open access – regardless of the author's field or funding situation.

    Authors and institutions with insufficient funding can apply for a discount on their publishing fees. A fee support application form is available on our website.

  • In line with our mission to promote healthy lives on a healthy planet, we do not provide printed materials. All our articles and ebooks are available under a CC-BY license, so you can share and print copies.

     

Manuscripts can be submitted to this Research Topic via the main journal or any other participating journal.

Submit your idea

Select the journal/section where you want your idea to be submitted:

Submit your manuscript summarySubmit your manuscript

Share on WeChat

Scan with WeChat to share this article