WEDNESDAY, Jan. 8, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- A drink or two of alcohol every day -- or nearly every day -- seems to lower a man's risk of having a heart attack, a new study finds.
However, cardiologists say that shouldn't be used as an excuse to go out and hoist one too many.
The finding also doesn't change the American Heart Association's standing recommendation on alcohol, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel, chairman of the association's scientific council on nutrition, physical activity and metabolism. Alcohol in moderation, say one or two drinks daily, can be beneficial, but it's something to discuss with your physician.
"The American Heart Association is aware of the potential benefits of alcohol," says Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. "The novelty [with the new study] is that how often you drink is more important than how much you drink."
Another curious finding in the study is that all types of alcohol -- beer, hard liquor, or red and white wine -- apparently benefited the heart. Much previous research had concluded that red wine was the drink of choice for those looking to protect their heart.
The study, reported in tomorrow's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, comes from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which has followed more than 38,000 males such as doctors since 1986. They have periodically filled out questionnaires about their diet, medical history and drinking habits -- what kind of beverage (beer, hard liquor, red wine, white wine) and how often they drank, among other things.
The researchers matched the answers about drinking habits with the incidence of heart attacks in the group, and adjusted for factors that can affect risk -- such as age, smoking and physical activity. They concluded the men who drank three to four times a week or five to seven times a week had a risk of heart attack that was 32 percent to 37 percent lower than that of teetotalers.
It was the number of days each week, rather than the amount of alcohol consumed, that produced the beneficial effect, the researchers say.
And the protective effect was there no matter what kind of alcoholic beverage was consumed: beer, liquor, red wine or white wine all had the same benefit.
Some experts have theorized that the low rate of cardiovascular disease in France is due to the consumption of red wine. This study could help kill that theory, says Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the journal report.
"In our study, red wine had the least protective effect, and there was no special advantage to any beverage," he says.
How to explain the benefits of steady, moderate drinking?
"Probably two or three effects of alcohol are at work," Mukamal says. "First, it increases levels of HDL cholesterol, the 'good' kind. That accounts for about half the effect. Second, it could be an anti-platelet agent. Platelets cause blood clots, and alcohol could have a short-lived effect on platelets. Also, it could improve the way the body metabolizes blood sugar."
Alcohol is metabolized by the liver, notes Eric Rimm, an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and another member of the research team. So "giving the liver alcohol regularly allows it to continue to make good cholesterol," he says.
The heart association's Eckel says the study results must be interpreted with caution because of the kind of people who participated in the research. "Keep in mind that this was an educated, white male group," he says. "You don't want to overly generalize on the basis of these results."
And, if anything, the results are an argument for exceedingly modest drinking, especially considering the known adverse effects of heavy drinking, Mukamal says.
"If you are looking to get the healthiest effects, moderate drinking just three or four days a week can give the maximum benefit," he says.
What To Do
To learn more about alcohol and heart disease, visit the American Heart Association. And the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute offers lots of information about heart attacks.
