Does Alcohol Protect Against Coronary Heart Disease?
While searching for the risk factors for coronary heart disease in comparisons among countries as well as among individuals, epidemiologists identified a potential benefit from alcohol consumption on mortality from heart disease. In the past three decades, almost every follow-up epidemiologic study has demonstrated that individuals who drink small to moderate amounts of alcohol have a lower risk than non-drinkers of dying from coronary heart disease. Among drinkers, the categories with the lowest coronary heart disease rates vary across studies, ranging from less than one drink per day to three to five drinks per day. In most studies, individuals who state that they normally consume six or more drinks per day, or who admit to having problems with alcohol abuse, have rates of dying from heart disease higher than both non-drinkers and moderate drinkers. Many of the early studies were criticized for including in the category of non-drinkers both lifetime abstainers and ex-drinkers. Many e
