Drinking
half a pint of beer a day may lower your risk of developing heart
failure, a new large-scale study has claimed. The study of nearly
15,000 men and women found that drinking up to seven drinks a week in
early to middle age is associated with a 20 per cent lower risk of
men developing heart failure in the future when compared to
teetotallers. A more modest 16 per cent reduced risk for women was
also observed, researchers said. Dr Scott Solomon, Professor of
Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Senior Physician at Brigham
and Women's Hospital, Boston, Dr Alexandra Goncalves, a research
fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and colleagues analysed data
from 14,629 people aged between 45-64 years. They had been recruited
to the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study between 1987 and
1989 in four communities in the US. Researchers followed the
participants to the end of 2011 and questioned them about their
alcohol consumption at the start and at each of the three subsequent
visits made at three-yearly intervals. They defined a drink as one
that contains 14g of alcohol, equivalent to approximately one small
(125ml) glass of wine, just over half a pint or a third of a litre of
beer, and less than one shot of liquor such as whisky or vodka. The
study participants were divided into six categories: abstainers
(people who recorded having drunk no alcohol at every visit by the
researchers), former drinkers, people who drank up to seven drinks a
week, or between 7-14 drinks, 14-21 drinks, or 21 or more drinks a
week. During the follow-up period 1,271 men and 1,237 women developed
heart failure. The lowest rate of heart failures occurred in those
drinking up to 7 drinks per week and the highest rate was seen among
former drinkers. Researchers found that men who consumed up to seven
drinks a week had a 20 per cent reduced risk of developing heart
failure compared to abstainers, while the risk was reduced by 16 per
cent in women consuming the same amount. Former drinkers had the
highest risk of developing heart failure - a 19 per cent and 17 per
cent increased risk among men and women respectively compared to
abstainers. Among both men and women consuming the most amount of
alcohol (14 or more drinks a week), the risk of heart failure was not
significantly different compared to the risk for abstainers. When
researchers looked at death from any cause, for those consuming 21 or
more drinks, the number of deaths from any cause increased by 47 per
cent for men and 89 per cent for women. "These findings suggest
that drinking alcohol in moderation does not contribute to an
increased risk of heart failure and may even be protective,"
Solomon said. "No level of alcohol intake was associated with a
higher risk of heart failure. However, heavy alcohol use is certainly
a risk factor for deaths from any cause," he said. The study is
published in the European Heart Journal.
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