adriana barton Globe and Mail Blog Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 8:34PM EDT <\/p>\n
A drink a day could keep the cardiologist away. <\/p>\n
Thats the upshot of a new study looking at the drinking habits of male heart attack survivors. <\/p>\n
Researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston followed 1,800 men for 20 years. They found that compared with teetotallers, men who drank about two alcoholic beverages a day had a 42 per cent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular causes. <\/p>\n
The effect was the same whether the men favoured beer, wine or whisky, ABC News reports. (Vodka and Red Bull? That might be a different story.) But too much booze is still a bad thing, researchers found. Heavy drinkers had a similar risk of death from any cause as abstainers. <\/p>\n
The study is the first to look at mens alcohol consumption both before and after they survived a heart attack, said lead author Jennifer Pai, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Universitys medical school. <\/p>\n
Our study indicates that for men already consuming moderate amounts of alcohol, continuing to consume moderate amounts after a heart attack may be beneficial for long-term survival, she told ABC News. <\/p>\n
In their conclusion, Dr. Pai and colleagues said that alcohols protective effects may be strongest among men with less severe damage from heart attack, and added that further study was needed. <\/p>\n
But the researchers didnt mention whether teetotallers in the study abstained from drinking because of other health problems, which might in part explain their higher mortality rates. <\/p>\n
Experts caution non-drinkers against viewing the study as a reason to take up drinking after a hospital stay. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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