Heart attack risk cut by moderate drinking
By D. Q. Haney - AP Science Writer (2/16/93)

Here's news to drink to: Doctors have found the strongest evidence yet that moderate alcohol consumption helps keep the heart healthy.

The research, published today, found that people who indulge in 1-3 drinks day are only about half as likely as nondrinkers to suffer heart attacks.

The evidence has been mounting for at least two decades that moderate drinking is good for the heart. However, the latest study adds an essential piece of proof. It explains how this happens.

The researchers found that alcohol clearly raises the body's supply of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol - the so-called good cholesterol. The increase is enough to explain most of the lower heart attack risk.

"We think we have found the mechanism by which alcohol may protect against heart disease," said Dr. J. Michael Gaziano of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

He and his co-authors said their work convinces them of a true cause and effect relationship between alcohol and a reduced risk of heart attacks.

An accompanying editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine agreed.

"There now seems little doubt that alcohol exerts a protective effect against coronary heart disease, " wrote Drs. Gary D. Friedman and Arthur L. Klatsky of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland, Calif.

The study has important implications, since heart attacks are the nation's biggest killer, taking 500,000 lives annually.

Even before this study, evidence was mounting that moderate drinking does more good than harm. The latest research sharpens a dilemma for doctors, many of whom are reluctant to suggest that people drink for their health.

Too much drinking causes a long list of ills, including cirrhosis of the liver, high BP and strokes. It contributes to car accidents. It damages fetuses. And, ironically, it causes heart disease.

The researchers stopped short of recommending that teetotalers take up alcohol or that occasional drinkers increase their consumption to once a day.

"The benefits have to outweigh the risks," Gaziano said. "This is some thing that patients should discuss wit} their doctors."

In their study, the doctors questioned 340 recent heart attack victims at six suburban Boston hospitals about their drinking. They compared them with healthy people the same age and sex.

The study found that those who took 1-3 drinks daily had half the heart attack risk of people who never drank. More than 3 drinks a day did not lower the risk further.

The risk was also reduced for those who drank at least once a month but not as often as once a day. But the benefit was smaller-about a 17% reduction.