Alcohol Benefits for the Heart

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As if you needed another excuse! There is yet another study released this week that shows a drink a day is good for the heart. But how much is the right amount, and why does it work? New research in the archives of internal medicine looked at nearly 2,500 adults without heart disease, aged 70 to 79. Those who drank one to seven drinks per week -- had a 27 percent lower risk of death and close to a 29 percent lower risk for cardiac events, like a heart attack, compared with the never or occasional drinkers.

But why does alcohol provide the cardiovascular protection? It’s thought perhaps that it has an anti-inflammatory component. The study looked to confirm that. “It confirmed that there is benefit to survival with moderate doses of alcohol, amounts of alcohol, however it’s probably not due to anti-inflammatory effects,” says Dr. Sabrina Wilbur, a cardiologist at Long Island College Hospital.

So it’s not the anti-inflammatories in fruit, or anything to do with anti-inflammatories. The researchers believe more research is needed into just how light drinking eases heart risk. Alcohol may interact with genetic factors. The other question is which alcohol is best?

“It does not distinguish between the types of alcohol that were consumed, which in the future that we maybe able to show a difference in the types of alcohol, but to date maybe besides for some small studies showing benefits from red wine. That could probably have to do with some of the enzymes that are in the skin of red wine such as flavanoids, or polyphenols,” says Dr. Wilbur.

But this drink on alcohol needs to be taken with a shaker, or at least a grain of salt. “Alcohol in excessive amounts can have deleterious effects to your health, it can give you a weakened heart or cardiac myopathy, it also has been associated with strokes, it maybe associated with increased dementia, clearly you can develop liver problems such as cirrhosis,” Dr. Wilbur advises.

The American Colllege of Cardiology and American Heart Association recommend that people who are not drinking should not start drinking for it’s protective effects. But if you’re drinking, a drink a day may be of significant medicinal value.

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Alcohol Benefits for the Heart

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