A drink a day is not just okay.
Moderate alcohol consumption can cut your risk of death from cardiac diseases by up to 25 per cent, a definitive new University of Calgary study says.
The study, which combed through six decades of data and took in as many as a million subjects, is the most comprehensive analysis ever of the relationship between moderate drinking and a range of heart ailments, its authors say.
And it should put to rest any further arguments about moderate drinking and heart protection, says Susan Brien, a post-doctoral community health researcher at the school and a study co-author.
“One of the compelling findings was that there are a lot of studies that have been done … looking at what happens in people who drink over time,” Brien says.
“And one of the interesting things we found was that there really doesn’t need to be any more studies … looking at the impact of alcohol on heart disease.”
The Calgary study, released Tuesday by the prestigious British Medical Journal, included more than 80 previous research papers published between 1950 and 2009.
It should be sufficient, Brien says, to convince scientists to forgo further studies on the association between drinking and heart disease.
Instead, she suggests they’d be better to concentrate on the physical mechanisms behind alcohol’s heart protection and which types of patients would benefit most from its moderate use.
But a second journal study, published by the same researchers, already suggests one positive role alcohol might play.
That study, lead by Brien, looked at 63 previous papers that together showed drinking may work by lowering the numerous risk factors.
“It gives a causal explanation for what’s happening — it suggests that alcohol does mediate some of the biomarkers associated with heart disease,” she says.
For example LDL cholesterol — the bad kind — was seen to be lowered by alcohol in many of the 63 previous studies the researchers poured through.
As well, telltale markers for such things as inflammation and blood vessel clotting were also seen to be lowered.
Brien says the reduced levels of such lurking heart threats were the same regardless of the type of drink, with wine, liquor and beer offering similar protection levels.
But Brien stresses that alcohol’s cardiac benefits only pertain to low levels of drinking — one a day for women, two for men — and that overconsumption will obliterate any health advantages that tiny amount of tippling will offer.
“Dosing is everything … the dose is really the key component,” she says.
She also says that anyone looking to alcohol as a therapeutic or prevention strategy should do so only in consultation with their doctor.
“It (the study) suggests there may not be harm for some adults in moderate drinking, possibly those who may have other risk factors for heart disease,” she says.
“But it’s tricky and it’s something they should suggest with their doctors for sure.”
Moderate alcohol consumption can cut your risk of death from cardiac diseases by up to 25 per cent, a definitive new University of Calgary study says.
The study, which combed through six decades of data and took in as many as a million subjects, is the most comprehensive analysis ever of the relationship between moderate drinking and a range of heart ailments, its authors say.
And it should put to rest any further arguments about moderate drinking and heart protection, says Susan Brien, a post-doctoral community health researcher at the school and a study co-author.
“One of the compelling findings was that there are a lot of studies that have been done … looking at what happens in people who drink over time,” Brien says.
“And one of the interesting things we found was that there really doesn’t need to be any more studies … looking at the impact of alcohol on heart disease.”
The Calgary study, released Tuesday by the prestigious British Medical Journal, included more than 80 previous research papers published between 1950 and 2009.
It should be sufficient, Brien says, to convince scientists to forgo further studies on the association between drinking and heart disease.
Instead, she suggests they’d be better to concentrate on the physical mechanisms behind alcohol’s heart protection and which types of patients would benefit most from its moderate use.
But a second journal study, published by the same researchers, already suggests one positive role alcohol might play.
That study, lead by Brien, looked at 63 previous papers that together showed drinking may work by lowering the numerous risk factors.
“It gives a causal explanation for what’s happening — it suggests that alcohol does mediate some of the biomarkers associated with heart disease,” she says.
For example LDL cholesterol — the bad kind — was seen to be lowered by alcohol in many of the 63 previous studies the researchers poured through.
As well, telltale markers for such things as inflammation and blood vessel clotting were also seen to be lowered.
Brien says the reduced levels of such lurking heart threats were the same regardless of the type of drink, with wine, liquor and beer offering similar protection levels.
But Brien stresses that alcohol’s cardiac benefits only pertain to low levels of drinking — one a day for women, two for men — and that overconsumption will obliterate any health advantages that tiny amount of tippling will offer.
“Dosing is everything … the dose is really the key component,” she says.
She also says that anyone looking to alcohol as a therapeutic or prevention strategy should do so only in consultation with their doctor.
“It (the study) suggests there may not be harm for some adults in moderate drinking, possibly those who may have other risk factors for heart disease,” she says.
“But it’s tricky and it’s something they should suggest with their doctors for sure.”
