Heavy Alcohol Consumption Increases Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

In the past few years, numerous studies have shown an association between drinking moderate amounts of alcohol (no more than 2 standard-sized drinks per day) and a reduction in cardiac risk. In fact, complete abstention from alcohol has been identified as one of the 9 major risk factors for heart disease.

But doctors have been reluctant to recommend alcohol consumption to their patients, because of its well-known propensity to cause addiction, and also because consuming more than 2 drinks per day INCREASES one's risk of death. This increased risk of death has generally been attributed to the increase in accidents, liver disease, neurological disease, and heart failure that alcohol is known to cause.

A new study out of Japan this week shows that heavy alcohol consumption (the equivalent of 4 or more drinks per day) is associated with a 50% increased risk of death from stroke in men.

But in women, heavy alcohol consumption was associated with a doubling of the risk of death from stroke, and a quadrupling of the risk of death from heart attack. Also, the benefits of light alcohol consumption in women was less than for men.

The most striking finding in this study, therefore, was that not only are the benefits of light alcohol consumption less in women, but also that the risk of heavy alcohol consumption appear much worse in women. In both women and in men, however, this study confirms once again that consuming any more than one or two drinks per day causes a net increase in mortality.

_Sources:

Ikehara S, Hiroyasu I, Toyoshima H et al. Alcohol consumption and mortality from stroke and coronary heart disease among Japanese men and women. The Japan collaborative cohort study. Stroke 2008; DOI: 10.1161/strokeaha.108.520288.