New research contradicts previous beliefs about alcohol’s heart health benefits

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wellhealthorganic.com:alcohol-consumption-good-for-heart-health-new-study-says-no: New research has found that previous beliefs about the heart health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption may be misguided. The study, published in the British Medical Journal, analyzed data from over 50,000 adults and found that any level of alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation,

a type of irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke and heart failure. This contradicts previous studies that suggested moderate alcohol intake could reduce the risk of heart disease. The authors of the study caution that the risks associated with alcohol outweigh any potential benefits and advise individuals to limit their alcohol consumption.

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Modern genetic engineering reveals the effects of alcohol

Folkersen is one of many the scientists involved with a large study, which analysed the alcohol habits, genes, and disease history of 261,991 Europeans.

The researchers took advantage of their knowledge of a particular variant of the gene ADH1B, which produces an acute oversensitivity to ethanol (alcohol) and helps the carriers of this genetic variant to drink less.

A small number of study participants carried this ‘reduced alcohol variant’, and this group had a 10 per cent reduced risk of developing heart disease and a 17 per cent reduced risk of blood clots than those with the regular gene.

wellhealthorganic.com:alcohol-consumption-good-for-heart-health-new-study-says-no Folkersen and colleagues also looked at people who drank relatively little–less than seven drinks per week–and they observed the same trend. It seemed that even in this group of light drinkers, the risk of heart diseases could be further reduced if they cut down on their already modest alcohol intake.

The study is supported by the Tryg Foundation and was published in July 2014 in the scientific journal British Medical Journal.

Alcohol’s effect is disputed

The results completely contradict a common interpretation of previous population studies, which examined the relationship between alcohol intake and cardiovascular disease.

“Many studies have shown that the relationship was U- or J-shaped. That means that the risk decreased if you drank moderately compared to if you drank nothing at all, and then increased again [if you drank a lot],” says Allan Linneberg, a clinical professor at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. He is the head of section for Research for Prevention and Health, which provided data for the new study.

“How to interpret this relationship has been discussed a lot. Some have interpreted it in such a way as to suggest that one drink a day protects against heart disease when compared with those who don’t drink at all,” says Linneberg.

But despite a clear correlation between moderate alcohol intake and a reduced risk of heart disease, it is not certain whether the underlying cause was indeed alcohol. Rather, it could be some other trait shared by the moderate drinkers.

Alcohol myths set to fall?

wellhealthorganic.com:alcohol-consumption-good-for-heart-health-new-study-says-no The surprising conclusions not only question whether moderate alcohol consumption actually protects us against heart disease, it also questions the previously supposed links between moderate alcohol intake and a myriad of other diseases, including dementia, diabetes, obesity and asthma.

“I’m a little sceptical that a drug could have a positive effect on so many different diseases. It would be hard to explain from a biological point of view,” says Linneberg.

Linneberg is now using the same methods as Folkersen to identify precisely how alcohol could affect asthma and other allergies. His hypothesis is that alcohol increases the risk of asthma and allergy outbreaks.

“We know that many people have allergic reactions when they drink alcohol. They get an itchy nose, a skin rash, they sneeze, and some even develop a little asthma,” says Linneberg. “We think that alcohol might trigger an allergic reaction in the immune system.”