|
First, the good news: Moderate drinkers get healthy benefits from alcohol, which acts as a blood-thinner, resulting in lower rates of heart disease, says a study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Now the bad news: The same blood-thinning benefits expose drinkers to higher rates of bleeding-type strokes than nondrinkers.
"The contrasting effects of alcohol are similar to the effects of blood thinners like aspirin, which clearly prevent heart attacks but at the expense of some additional bleeding strokes," says Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He based his results on data from 3,798 people enrolled in a long-term study of heart disease risk factors.
"Acting as a blood thinner makes sense because heart attacks are caused by blood clots that form in clogged arteries, and blood thinners can hasten bleeding from injured arteries."
Mukamal warns against using this revelation to overimbibe: "By themselves, these findings have more importance for understanding risk factors for vascular disease than any clinical relevance, and should not be used by people as any reason to begin drinking." |
