Alcohol and heart health: weird conclusion

Does alcohol cause stroke and heart attack? Or does it not?

Hundreds of studies pounded on that question. Each contradicts the other.

Finally, we have a clear answer that explains everything.

It’s from a new study published in BMC Medicine.

But, it’s weird.

The problem with most studies is that they either consider people’s current drinking habits, or they consider the average amount of alcohol intake over a person’s life.

The authors of the new study suggest that neither of these approaches is ideal, since our drinking habits may change significantly over time.

For example, if a study concludes that people who abstain from alcohol are unhealthier than light drinkers, it may be because these current abstainers were drinkers in the past, and their previous alcohol consumption, rather than their current abstinence, could be responsible for their health problems.

The authors of the new study decided to investigate whether such trajectories of alcohol intake could affect heart health.

They used information from 35,132 people whose data had previously been collected in six earlier British and French studies. They compared those who had never consumed alcohol to those who had done so consistently prior to quitting.

Interestingly, coronary heart diseases and events related to it were lower in the group who drank consistently over time than among those who had consumed alcohol and stopped.

This was true for both heavy and moderate drinkers.

Those who had drunk inconsistently—changing their intake levels between high, moderate, and none—had a higher risk of coronary heart disease and events related to it, as compared to those with consistent habits.

Does this mean that you can now drink heavily, so long as you do it permanently?

The researchers warned that heavy drinkers who participated in the study were so few that it is impossible to draw this conclusion and act on it.

The fact is that alcohol has very little effect on heart disease.

Cholesterol is a much worse cardiovascular health risk. And bad cholesterol is almost always caused by ONE ingredient you might not realize you consume (you will know after reading this)…

High blood pressure is the #1 cause of stroke and heart attack – no doubt. There is a simple way to bring your blood pressure down in under nine minutes.

How? You ask.

Answer: Three easy blood pressure exercises (learn them here)…