Drinking a moderate amount of alcohol lowers the risk of heart attack

The Framingham study has already shown that, from the standpoint of mortality from heart attack, drinkers of a small quantity of alcohol are better off than teetotallers. Consumers of alcohol had up to 80% fewer heart attacks than people who never drank at all, or else only consumed negligible quantities of alcohol. In 1982 it was already established that during a coronary angiography there exists an indirect relationship between the amount of alcohol drunk and blocked coronary arteries both in men and women. In the same year another work was published which likewise demonstrated the smaller number of closures of coronary arteries in those drinking 5.7 to 17.1 grams of alcohol daily than in abstainers. A study on the influence of drinking small amounts of alcohol on coronary arrest in the medical profession took place in the USA. In a total of 51,000 health workers the risk of cardiac arrest among those consuming more than 30 grams of alcohol per day decreased by up to half compared to the risk among abstainers. Where the alcohol intake is greater than 50 grams per day the risk of heart attack fell by almost 60%. A vital role was also played by the frequency of drinking. A lowered risk of developing a heart attack was greater in men who drank frequently than in those who consumed alcohol less frequently, or even just once a week.

Wine Consumption

On average every Czech citizen consumes some 20.1 litres of wine per year. This means that over the past 20 years there has been an increase of around one third, while over the past 10 years the increase is approximately one quarter. The European average totals around 36 litres per person per year.

A further long-term research lasting 13 years covered more than 12,000 British doctors. Likewise it confirmed the highest death rate from heart attack in abstainers and the lowering of the mortality rate through an increase in the amount of alcohol consumed. The lowest figure for mortality from heart attack was reached by consuming approximately 30 grams of alcohol per day. It is interesting to note that death rates did not rise even with a consumption of over 30 grams of alcohol per day. Only through even greater consumption did mortality begin to increase. A further study was undertaken in France. During a 12-year period during which 34,000 men in eastern France were monitored, a 30% lowering of mortality rates from heart attack was observed when consumption stood at 48 grams of alcohol per day, predominantly in the form of wine.

The Copenhagen study not only found a lowering of the risk of heart attack in men after drinking a small amount of alcohol, but also established that a lowering of the level of LDL cholesterol also plays an important role in decreasing mortality rates from heart attack. Most works demonstrated that by consuming approximately 30 grams of alcohol per day the concentration of triglycerides increases on average by 5.9%. By increasing the amount of triglycerides the risk of bringing on a heart attack rises by around 2% which thus decreases even the favourable effects of drinking alcohol to prevent a heart attack.

A new modern technique of electronic beams directed by computerised tomography (EBCT) was used to observe the influence of drinking alcohol on the risk of heart attack in 1,196 people. The risk of heart attack was monitored according to the calcium score in the coronary arteries. An increased calcium score in the coronary arteries indicated a more than threefold greater probability of heart problems than in patients having a normal calcium score. Alcohol drinkers showed to have a calcium score considerably lower and with it a significantly lower risk of heart attack after even a comparatively short period of 41 months.

Meta-analytic studies, even though they contain a plethora of insufficiencies, can yet only by the inclusion of a greater number of studies offer a certain picture of the influence of drinking a small amount of alcohol on the genesis of a heart attack, or else on mortality caused by heart attack. In the analysis of the risk of heart attack in a group study published before 1993, Maclure concluded that alcohol abstainers have roughly a 20% higher death rate than those who drink two or three drinks a day. Another meta-analytic work is the study from the Department of Nutrition at Harvard University, processing 42 published specialised studies. The authors found that a daily consumption of 30 grams of alcohol lowers the risk of heart attack by around one quarter, while at the same time the concentration of HDL cholesterol went up. Also, in another meta-analytic study (as early as in 1986), the authors found a decrease in the risk of heart attack of up to 60% through moderate drinking of alcohol in comparison with total abstinence.

The drinking a small amount of alcohol, roughly 30 grams per day, apart from increasing the level of HDL cholesterol in the blood, lowers the concentration of fibrinogen and helps in the prevention of the platelet disoders. Increasing the acetylsalicylic acid content has an antithrombotic effect. It was futher demonstrated that drinking a small amount of alcohol increases fibrinolysis and reduces blood clotting. Furthermore, the Danish Institute of Preventive Medicine reached the following interesting conclusion: by examining the social and personal characteristics of 700 young adults the researchers established that wine drinkers possess attributes which clearly help overcome the risk factors associated with cardiac arrests and sustain them in rude health.

A still much-discussed question is what the influence of wine consumption may be on the overall energy output. It was confirmed that the consumption of 10 to 30 grams of alcohol increases the daily energy input in our diet by just between 3% and 9%. In people who drink for social reasons or slightly more, the energy intake rises through the effects of alcohol by up to 10% of the entire consumption and in heavy drinkers up to 30%.

Drinking small quantities of alcohol lowers the risk of a cardiac arrest and reduces the mortality rate caused by heart attack.

Source: Pít či nepít (Pití vína a srdeční infarkt) / To Drink Or Not To Drink (Wine drinking and cardiovascular diseases)
© Milan Šamánek, Zuzana Urbanová
© RADIX, spol. s r.o.
Further information on www.radix-knihy.cz