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(CNN) -
If you have heart disease, consuming a small amount of alcohol every day is linked to a lower risk of another heart attack, stroke, angina (heart pain due to constricted arteries), or premature death. according to a new large study.
"This is not the general population, the study applies to people to whom something related to cardiovascular health has already happened," said alcohol researcher Emmanuela Gakidou, senior director of organizational development and training at the Institute of Metrics. and Health Assessment at the University of Washington.
"And what they found is that if you continue drinking after you've had a cardiac event, it's not that bad for you as long as you keep your intake low," said Gakidou, who was not involved in the study.
Compared to people who drink nothing, the study found that drinking up to 105 grams of alcohol a week, the equivalent of just over a bottle of wine or a six-pack of medium strength beers, appeared to protect people who They had already suffered a heart problem from having another incident or an early death.
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That's far less than the upper limit of consumption recommended by the World Health Organization for men and women (166 grams per week).
Also for the limit for men currently recommended in the United States (196 grams per week).
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A find with limits
However, the biggest benefit came from drinking less than half that amount, according to the study published Monday in the journal BMC Medicine.
"Our findings suggest that people with CVD (cardiovascular disease) may not need to stop drinking to prevent additional heart attacks, strokes or angina pectoris. But they may want to consider reducing their weekly alcohol intake," said the Study author Chengyi Ding, a postdoctoral student at University College London, in a statement.
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But this finding would not apply to everyone, as drinking alcohol increases the risk of certain diseases such as cirrhosis, tuberculosis and cancer and of alcohol-related accidents and injuries, Gakidou said.
"If your main health problem is cancer, then the safest level to drink is probably zero," Gakidou said.
"And if you are under 40, the safest level of alcohol is still zero because younger adults die from alcohol-related injuries around the world," he added.
The largest study on alcohol and cardiovascular disease to date
In what the researchers call the largest study to date to examine the risk of alcohol use in people with existing cardiovascular disease, data was collected from more than 14,000 people who had already had a heart attack, stroke or angina, who were followed for up to 20 years.
The results of 12 additional studies were added to the analysis to make a combined sample of more than 48,000 people.
The new study found that the lowest risk occurred when people with existing heart conditions drank 6 to 8 grams of alcohol per day (42 to 56 grams per week).
People who drank 8 grams of alcohol a day had a 27% lower risk of suffering a second cardiovascular event compared to people with heart disease who did not drink.
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But when people drank a little less, just 6 grams of alcohol a day, the benefit almost doubled.
They had a 50% lower risk of having another heart attack, another stroke or episode of angina than those who did not drink.
That's not a lot of alcohol in one go.
In America, that would be about half a glass of regular beer or wine or 2,200 milliliters of distilled spirits.
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In the UK, where a standard unit of alcohol is 10 milliliters or 8 grams, it's a bit more complicated.
For example, "a pint of strong beer contains 3 units of alcohol," according to the National Health Services.
So 6 grams of alcohol would be only a third of a pint of strong beer a day.
Without a defined amount of alcohol
For decades, public health standards considered one "drink a day" okay.
Many similar studies over the years found a positive association between moderate alcohol consumption and a reduced risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the world.
In fact, most health organizations still allow one or two drinks a day for men and one or fewer drinks a day for women as part of their dietary guidelines.
Other studies also found a connection between moderate alcohol consumption and a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, a growing worldwide epidemic.
But all the time there were practical problems.
After all, many people end up adding much more than a "standard unit" of alcohol to their mixed drink.
The arrival of "gravity" beers and wines with much higher-than-normal alcohol levels also compounded the problem.
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Another problem: how candid are people when they tell study researchers how much they drink?
"A 60-year-old man in Greece and a 75-year-old woman in Germany, who knows what they have in mind when they answer that question," Gakidou said.
"The probability that someone will answer truthfully and objectively is probably zero," he admitted.
The high cost of consuming alcohol
Research began to show a connection between alcohol consumption and the development of dementia, liver disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, digestive disorders, and cancer, another leading cause of death.
Add to that the overall cost of alcohol consumption in loss of life from accidents and injuries, the message to the masses was that no amount of alcohol was beneficial to health.
"While some studies have found better health outcomes among moderate drinkers, it is impossible to conclude whether they are due to moderate alcohol consumption or other differences in behavior or genetics between people who drink moderately and people who do not." , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English).
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Gakidou, author of a 2016 study that concluded that no amount of alcohol was safe, told CNN that since she published the research, her study is beginning to focus on more details about how alcohol contributes to illness.
Soon, he says, we may even know how alcohol increases, or reduces, the risk of individual diseases by age, gender, and the country or region in which people live.
"We may be able to say 'If you are a 30-year-old man living in sub-Saharan Africa or in Europe or Southeast Asia, this is your safest level of alcohol consumption."
And then what is your safest level of alcohol consumption if you are a 60-year-old woman living in these regions, ”Gakidou said.
If you don't drink, don't start
Until science finds out exactly how alcohol interacts with all the various diseases and conditions that affect us, there is one thing that public health organizations agree on: If you don't drink, don't start, even if you have a heart condition.
Current CDC guidelines "do not recommend that non-drinkers start drinking for any reason."
The agency says that those who should avoid alcohol entirely include:
- Pregnant women or who may be.
- Anyone under the legal drinking age.
- Anyone who plans to drive or perform activities that require coordination and alertness.
- People with certain medical conditions, such as liver disease.
- Taking over-the-counter or prescription medications that can interact with alcohol, such as pain relievers, sleeping pills, ADHD medications, antibiotics, and some blood pressure medications.
- People who are recovering from an alcohol use disorder or who cannot control the amount they drink.
And if adults "of legal drinking age choose to drink alcoholic beverages, drinking less is better for health than drinking more," the CDC states.
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