Imagine a physician encouraging patients to exercise, stop smoking, and "have a glass of wine" to protect against heart disease. A daily drink has been shown to lower the risk for cardiovascular disease. But what happens when men change their drinking patterns over time? Researchers at Harvard University, who recently explored how changes in alcohol consumption over a seven-year period influenced heart disease risk in middle-aged and older men, have concluded that it depends on how much these men, at least, drank when the study began.

The study, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, was part of the ongoing Physicians' Health Study. It followed over 18,000 men ages 40 to 84, who were free from heart disease and cancer at the time the study began. The volunteers were questioned about their alcohol intake at the study's start. After seven years, their drinking habits were reassessed to see if changes in the men's alcohol consumption over this time influenced their risk of heart disease.

The researchers found that men who started the study as very light drinkers (one alcoholic beverage a week or less) and gradually increased their intake to 6 drinks per week slightly reduced their risk of heart disease compared to light drinkers whose intake did not change over time. Men who were moderate drinkers (1-6 drinks per week) at the study's beginning did not alter their heart disease risk whether or not they increased or decreased alcohol consumption. Those that consumed more than one drink a day had the same disease risk throughout the study, even if they were drinking less after seven years. Regular consumption of more than two drinks a day, though, increased the men's risk of heart disease by 63%.

This study supports previous findings that light to moderate drinking reduces the risk of heart disease. The most significant way in which alcohol (wine, beer or liquor) contributes to heart health is by increasing blood levels of HDL, or "good" cholesterol.

Moderation is key to the alcohol and heart disease connection -- no more than two drinks a day for men and only one for women. One drink is equivalent to 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1 ½ ounces of distilled spirits. As shown in this study, no additional benefit was derived from drinking more. In fact, more than 2 drinks each day was associated with an increase in heart disease risk and other potential problems including obesity, high blood pressure, certain cancers, accidents, and alcoholism.

Furthermore, the study points out that those who currently abstain should not begin drinking in hopes of better health -- the risk reduction was actually small. And, moderate drinkers can not justify another round in hopes of even greater health benefits. So these data add to the evidence that drinking alcohol should not be perceived or recommended as preventive strategy for cardiovascular disease. This study simply adds more weight to the current recommendations described in the US Dietary Guidelines and those for many other countries around the world: if you drink alcoholic

Source

Seven-year changes in alcohol consumption and subsequent risk of cardiovascular disease in men.
HD. Sesso,  et al., Archives of Internal Medicine., 2000, vol. 160, pp. 2605--2612

Links

• How to drink less. Health and Age
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