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Could heavy drinking help men's hearts?

20 November 2009

Drinking alcohol may cut the risk of heart disease by almost a third in men, controversial new research suggests.

Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol may help to lower your risk of coronary heart disease. But you should always stick within the recommended alcohol limits.

Dr Virginia Warren, assistant medical director for Bupa

Spanish scientists looked at over 41,000 men and women aged 29 to 69. They studied the relationship between the amount of alcohol people drank and their chance of getting coronary heart disease.

Participants were asked about their lifetime drinking habits and how much alcohol they drank per day or week during the 12 months before the study started.

They were then divided into six groups, according to the amount of alcohol they drank. The groups were former drinkers, never drinkers, low drinkers, moderate drinkers, high drinkers and very high drinkers.

The researchers recorded the number of heart problems that occurred in each group over an average of 10 years.

Other things that may have affected the participants risk of coronary heart disease, including whether they smoked, the amount of physical activity they did and their medical history were also taken into account.

The results of the study show that drinking alcohol reduced the likelihood of men getting coronary heart disease. Moderate, high and very high male drinkers all showed a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. Overall, drinking alcohol was found to reduce their chance of getting coronary heart disease by around a third.

However, this effect wasn't seen in women. The researchers suggest this may be because only a low number of women had heart problems during the study, meaning the results weren't conclusive.

Dr Virginia Warren, assistant medical director for Bupa, commented:

"This study suggests that drinking alcohol can protect men against coronary heart disease, no matter how much they drink. However, it doesn't change the fact that drinking too much alcohol is bad for your health. Alcohol doesn't only affect your heart, it can damage other organs including your liver, and heavy drinking is known to cause serious health problems and early death.

"Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol may help to lower your risk of coronary heart disease. But you should always stick within the recommended alcohol limits."

Key facts
  • The current UK guidelines recommend that women shouldn't drink more than two or three units a day and men shouldn't drink more than three or four units a day.
  • As a guide, in the UK one pint of strong lager contains around three units, one pint of standard strength lager or bitter contains around two units, one standard glass of wine contains around two units and one measure of spirits contains one unit.
  • In the US, drinking in moderation is defined as having no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men.
  • The Australian government recommend that men and women should drink no more than two standard drinks on any day, to reduce their risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury.

Related information

Read the study

Arriola L, Martinez-Camblor P, Larraņaga N et al. Alcohol intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in the Spanish EPIC cohort study. Heart 2009. doi:10.1136/hrt.2009.173419

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