Drink less to keep your heart healthy

Reducing the amount of alcoholic beverages consumed, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may promote cardiovascular health, according to a new study by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers found that individuals who carry a specific gene which typically leads to lower alcohol consumption over time have, on average, superior cardiovascular health records.

Michael Holmes, MD,research assistant professor in the department of Transplant Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania said that these new results were critically important to their understanding of how alcohol affects heart disease and contrary to what earlier reports had shown, it now appeared that any exposure to alcohol had a negative impact upon heart health.

Holmes added that for some time, observational studies had suggested that only heavy drinking was detrimental to cardiovascular health, and that light consumption may actually be beneficial.

Holmes further said that this has led some people to drink moderately based on the belief that it would lower their risk of heart disease, however, what they saw with this new study, which used an investigative approach similar to a randomized clinical trial, was that reduced consumption of alcohol, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may lead to improved cardiovascular health.