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Why Alcohol May Help Hearts
Alcohol may lower the risk of heart disease by acting as a blood
thinner, a new study shows.
But the news isn’t totally rosy. Blood thinning could raise the
risk of bleeding-type of strokes, the researchers noted.
So should you drink or not? The study doesn’t issue a verdict. It
focused on the science of how moderate drinking may affect the
heart.
The findings should not be used by people as any reason to begin
drinking, they cautioned.
The researchers concentrated on blood platelets. Those are small
cell fragments in the blood. They’re made in the bone marrow, and
their job is to help blood clot.
That’s a great thing when you have a skin cut. But you don’t want
a blood clot in an artery because that could block blood flow and
cause a heart attack. Platelets aren’t lone rangers. They cluster
together to do their work. Platelet stickiness and activation were
topics for the research team.
The study included 3,000 adults who didn’t have heart disease.
They were the children of participants from another heart study.
Participants gave blood samples in 1991 and 1994 as part of an
offspring study, which began in the early 1970' s. They were also
surveyed about their drinking habits, smoking status, physical
activity, and other health problems (such as high blood pressure
and diabetes).
Participants were asked how often and how much they drank wine,
beer, and liquor. Beer was the most common drink for men; wine was
women’s common drink.
The findings among both men and women, an intake of three to six
drinks per week or more was linked to lower levels of stickiness
by aggregability, says the study. Aggregability means the ability
to cluster together. It measures platelet stickiness. Among the
men, they found that alcohol intake was linked to lower levels of
platelet activitation. Together, the findings identify moderate
drinking as a potential blood thinner, the say.
The type of alcohol didn’t appear to change the results. The study
didn’t specify whether wine was red or white.
Moderate drinkers have been shown to have lower rates of heart
attacks than non-drinkers, the researchers noted.
But at the same time, moderate drinking has been linked to a
higher risk of hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke, even after
accounting for its effects on blood pressure, they write.
The findings add to a large body of evidence showing that moderate
drinking has effects on blood coagulation, which may have both
good and bad effects, they said.
It’s easy to get carried away with serving size, especially if
you’re drinking our of a large wie goblets of hefty beer glasses.
What one may consider one drink could actually be several drinks
if your portions are off.
The researchers defined one serving 12 ounces of beer,5 ounces of
wine, 1.5 ounces of SO-proof spirits.
