Is moderate drinking as effective as cholesterol lowering in reducing mortality in high-risk coronary patients?
Footnotes The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Editors of the European Heart Journal or of the European Society of Cardiology. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehm509 Most physicians know that alcohol drinking during pregnancy is criminal. Drinking before driving is just as criminal. We all know that chronic heavy drinking can result in liver cirrhosis or Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome, and that even exceptional binge drinking can result in violence, unsafe sex, and cardiac death. On the other hand, the medical and scientific literature shows that moderate drinking (1–2 drinks/day for women and 2–4 drinks/day for men) is associated with a better life expectancy in the general population as well as in patients with established coronary heart disease (CHD).1–3 The study by Janszky et al.4 is an additional report showing the protective effect of moderate drinking in Swedish patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In the absence of a controlled trial, which i
