|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Senior Health & Medicine
Heart Disease Risk Lowered for Men by Drinking
Daily, Women Once a Week
Beneficial effect probably confined to middle
aged or older people
May 26, 2006 - Men who drink alcohol every day have a lower risk
of heart disease than those who drink less frequently, suggests research
in this weeks BMJ. The same is not true for women. But, women who
drank alcohol on at least one day a week had a lower risk of coronary
heart disease than women who drank alcohol on less than one day a week.
The authors noted "the beneficial effect of alcohol is probably confined
to middle aged or older people."
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Drinking Increases Death Risk for Older Men with
Certain Diseases
Older women
drinkers had no increased death risks
April 10, 2006 - Older men who drink as few as two
drinks twice a week and also have diseases that could be worsened by
alcohol or cause problems with medications taken while drinking alcohol
have higher death rates, as compared to men who either drink less or may
drink more but don't have such comorbidities (two are more psychiatric
or physical illnesses).
Read more...
Moderate Drinking Fuels Cancer Tumors in New Study
Senior Alert: Only
2-4 drinks a day causes robust tumors in mice
April 4, 2006 Senior citizens are of the
generation that has accepted a drink of two at the end of the day as a
welcome ritual of relaxation. A new study, however, shows that even
moderate drinking two to four a day stimulates cancer tumors. The
study was done with mice but University of Mississippi researchers who
say it is the first-ever mammalian model of how alcohol consumption
spurs larger, more robust tumors.
Read more...
Smokers, Drinkers and Men Get Colorectal Cancer Much
Sooner
Disease could
strike before they become senior citizens
March 28, 2006 - Non-drinkers and Non-smokers my
get colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death, but
they are going to have an extra 7.8 years before being stricken than
will their drinking and smoking friends. On average, of the older adults
who currently smoke or drink, women will get the disease at age 63.2 and
men at 62.1. Read
more...
Read more
on
Health & Medicine |
|
This study raises important questions about
drinking patterns and heart health among men and women, but an editorial
warns that the results should be interpreted with caution and should not
be used to justify potentially harmful drinking behavior.
It is widely known that moderate drinkers have a
lower risk of coronary heart disease than those who abstain, but most
research in this field has been done on men and little is known about
drinking patterns and risk of heart disease among women.
Researchers in Denmark studied over 50,000 men and
women aged 50-65 years who were taking part in a national health study.
Details on alcohol intake and drinking frequency over the preceding year
were collected, and participants were monitored for an average of 5.7
years.
Coronary heart events were recorded and results
were adjusted for known risk factors, such as age, smoking, education,
physical activity and diet.
A total of 28,448 women and 25,052 men took part in
the study. Women consumed an average of 5.5 alcoholic drinks a week and
men consumed 11.3. During the study, 749 women and 1,283 men developed
coronary heart disease.
| |
"Heavy alcohol drinking is positively associated with many
problems such as liver diseases, cancers, and road crashes, and
overall mortality is higher among individuals with a high
alcohol intake compared with light consumers." |
|
Women who drank alcohol on at least one day a week
had a lower risk of coronary heart disease than women who drank alcohol
on less than one day a week.
However, risks were similar for drinking on one day
a week (36% reduced risk), or seven days a week (35% reduced risk),
suggesting that the amount of alcohol consumed is more important than
drinking frequency among women.
In contrast, for men, risks were lowest for the
most frequent drinkers. For example, men who drank on one day a week had
a 7% reduced risk, while men who drank daily had a 41% reduced risk.
This suggests that it doesnt matter how much men drink, as long as they
drink every day.
To try to minimize bias, early cases of heart
disease were analyzed separately, but this did not change the
conclusions. However, the authors stress that the benefits of alcohol on
coronary heart disease are by far exceeded by the harmful effects of
heavy alcohol drinking, and that their findings should be viewed in this
context when giving public health advice.
But before the corks start popping, it is worth
bearing several caveats in mind, writes Annie Britton, an epidemiology
expert, in an accompanying editorial.
For instance, the Danish participants were
middle-aged and therefore presumably at a greater risk of heart disease.
The low response rate also means that extremes of drinking may not have
been captured. Finally, the nature of this report an observational
study may make it prone to other explanations for the findings.
In the UK, people are drinking well above the
optimum level for health, so advice and legislation about keeping
consumption safe and healthy are needed, she concludes.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
