Light-To-Moderate Drinking Can Reduce Heart Attack Risk

healthy heart wine

Good news for people that like an occasional tipple: peer-reviewed journal, BMC Medicine has just published a new study that asserts that light-to-moderate drinking could be beneficial to one’s health, including for those with heart disease. 

The study, entitled ‘Association of alcohol consumption with morbidity and mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease’, asserts that patients with heart disease who drank six grams of alcohol per day on average were associated with a 50-percent risk reduction of heart attack, stroke, and even death.

The study also found that drinkers who averaged a consumption of higher than eight grams of alcohol per day would see a 27% reduction in death risk compared with those who did not drink.

Vinepair states that in the United States, an average pour contains 14 grams of alcohol.

Comprising assessment of some 48,000 patients with heart disease, the research found that, while even increased alcohol consumption up to 62 grams per day was not associated with a heightened risk of heart attack, “non-drinking patients should not be encouraged to take up light drinking because of well-known adverse effects on other health outcomes, such as cancers.”

Speaking with Reuters, a co-author of the study, Chengyi Ding said:

“Our findings suggest that people with CVD (cardiovascular disease) may not need to stop drinking in order to prevent additional heart attacks, strokes or angina, but that they may wish to consider lowering their weekly alcohol intake,” 

“Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing other illnesses.”

According to Reuters, a separate study published in 2019 found that older people with heart failure who consume up to seven alcoholic drinks per week may live longer than teetotalers.

If this news has you excited about adding a new tipple to your lineup, we recommend heading over to the Spirited Zine home page to get the latest news on everything happening in the wine and spirits world.