When it comes to the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, results of the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology was even better: a 21% reduction for men and a 34% reduction for women.
The study is significant in that it involved 333,247 U.S. adults.
Younger adults shouldn’t expect considerable benefit from moderate drinking. But “for most older persons, the overall benefits of light drinking, especially the reduced cardiovascular disease risk, clearly outweigh possible cancer risk,” Giovanni de Gaetano, MD, PhD, director of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention at IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, wrote in an accompanying editorial
The researchers noted that previous studies showed that “all alcoholic drinks at moderate level were associated with lower risk of heart disease, suggesting a major benefit is from ethanol rather than other components of each type of drink.”
In past studies, some have claimed the positive results for moderate drinking were skewed by including people who used to drink but quit drinking for health reasons as “former drinkers.” But Sreenivas Veeranki, MD, DrPH, one of the study authors, said the researchers took “rigorous statistical approaches” to address the “sick quitter phenomenon.”
The researchers divided alcohol consumption patterns into six categories: lifetime abstainers, lifetime infrequent drinkers, former drinkers and current light (less than three drinks per week), moderate (more than three drinks per week to less than 14 drinks per week for men or less than seven drinks per week for women) or heavy drinkers (more than 14 drinks per week for men or seven drinks per week for women).
“Our research shows that light-to-moderate drinking might have some protective effects against cardiovascular disease, while heavy drinking can lead to death. A delicate balance exists between the beneficial and detrimental effects of alcohol consumption, which should be stressed to consumers and patients,” said Bo Xi, MD, associate professor at the Shandong University School of Public Health in China and the study’s lead author.
During the study, 34,754 participants died from all-causes. Of these, 8,947 mortalities were cardiovascular disease-specific (6,944 heart disease-related and 2,003 cerebrovascular-related deaths) and 8,427 mortalities were cancer-specific.
Researchers found that male heavy drinkers had a 25% increased risk of mortality due to all-causes and a 67% increase in mortality from cancer. These increases were not significantly noticed in women. There was no association found between heavy drinking and cardiovascular disease mortality.
Moderate drinking was associated with a 13% and 25% decreased risk of all-cause mortality, and 21% and 34% decreased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, respectively, in both men and women. Similar findings were observed for light drinking in both genders.
They concluded that light-to-moderate drinking can lower risk of mortality from all-causes and cardiovascular disease, while heavy drinking can significantly increase risk of mortality from all-causes and cancer.
“This study adds to the large body of science on the potential health benefits of moderate consumption of alcohol. Importantly, the authors make clear, light-to-moderate drinking might be protective, but heavy drinking has serious health consequences,” said Dr. Sam Zakhari, Senior Vice President of Science for the Distilled Spirits Council.