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Alcohol
Moderation
is the Key Dozens of studies
show that moderate alcohol consumption lowers the risk of heart attack for
people in middle age by roughly 30 percent to 50 percent. This result seems
to hold up even when you consider other factors that may play a role, such as
age and tobacco use. Apparently alcohol offers its greatest protection to men
older than age 50, especially those who smoke or did smoke. Moderate
alcohol consumption would be an average of one to two of the following per
day for men and one per day for women:
In some
studies alcohol was shown to:
However,
drinking too much alcohol can raise the levels of some fats in the blood and
may bring other health dangers, such as alcoholism, high blood pressure,
obesity, stroke, etc. Given these and other risks, the American Heart
Association cautions people against increasing their alcohol intake or
starting to drink if they don't already do so. Other serious problems include
cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmia and sudden
cardiac death.
Some studies
suggest that wine's health benefits are superior to beer and liquor because
of certain compounds in wine, such as resveratrol.
Other studies document the same cardiovascular benefits with all three. Over
the past several decades, many studies have been published in science
journals about how drinking alcohol may help reduce mortality due to heart
disease. Some researchers have suggested that the benefit may be due to wine,
especially red wine. Others are examining the potential benefits of
components in red wine such as flavonoids (FLAV'oh-noidz) and other antioxidants (an"tih-OK'sih-dants) in
reducing heart disease risk. Some of these components may be found in other
foods such as grapes or red grape juice. Another area of controversy is that
the linkage reported in many of these studies may be due to other lifestyle
factors rather than alcohol. Such factors may include increased physical
activity and a diet high in fruits and vegetables. Don't feel
pressured to drink. And don't drink every day. Few, if any, medical experts
advise nondrinkers to start drinking. Don't drink
alcohol at all if you have:
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