Even healthy men may benefit from a drink or two daily to
help lower the risk of heart attack, medical researchers reported on Monday.
"Our results suggest that moderate drinking could be viewed as a complement,
rather than an alternative," to lifestyle interventions such as regular physical
activity, weight loss and quitting smoking, said the study from Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
The report said previous studies have linked moderate drinking to a lower
heart attack risk, compared to the risk run by those who do not drink at all.
The apparent protective effect may be that alcohol appears to raise the level of
so-called "good" cholesterol in the bloodstream.
But doctors do not generally recommend people drink, it said, because of the
risks associated with heavy drinking.
The study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at nearly
9,000 men who were part of a large multiyear study tracking their health
histories. The group of men studied were nonsmokers, not overweight, got at
least 30 minutes of exercise daily and had diets heavy on fruits, vegetables,
fish and polyunsaturated fats but low in trans-fats and red meat.
Between 1986 and 2002, 106 of the men had heart attacks, including eight out
of 1,282 who downed about two drinks daily, compared to 28 of another 1,889 who
did not drink at all.
There were nine heart attacks in a group of 714 men who drank more than two
drinks daily, and 34 in a group of 2,252 who drank less than two a day.
An analysis found that the lowest risk was in the two-drink group, the
authors said, and the highest risk among the nondrinkers.
"Given our findings, future guidelines for moderate drinking need not
consider healthy lifestyle behavior as mutually exclusive and should instead
focus on the strengths and limitations of the evidence about moderate alcohol
intake," the study concluded.
