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Taking up drinking later in life specifically
to ward off heart problems may not be a good idea.
Indeed, their study found that men who
took up regular drinking in middle age did not reduce their
risk of fatal heart attack. And new
drinkers seemed to have a slightly greater risk of dying of
other causes compared with life-long occasional
drinkers or teetotalers.
There is no good reason to encourage
older men who do not drink or who only drink occasionally
to take up regular drinking for the sake of their health --
despite this being recommended by many physicians. Whatever
small benefit there may be for heart attacks is more than
offset by the increase in other causes of death.
Population studies have found lower rates
of heart attacks among drinkers and higher rates among those
who abstain. Some doctors have used this research as the basis
for advising moderate amounts of drinking. However, the investigators
attempted to test whether beginning drinking actually prevented
heart attacks and death.
According to the report the researchers
did find that men who took up regular drinking (usually a
switch from two drinks or less per month to one to two drinks
per day) were less likely to have a heart attack than the
men who were lifelong occasional drinkers or teetotalers.
However,
the men who began regularly drinking were no less likely to
actually die of heart disease than the men who
consistently abstained, and were somewhat more likely to die
of other illnesses, such as cancer.
The finding that non-drinkers experience
higher rates of cardiovascular disease and death could be
caused by the fact that those in poor health may abstain from
drinking alcohol.
The role of alcohol in preventing heart
attacks and diminishing death rates may well turn out to be
one of the major medical myths of our time. That the 'protective'
effects of alcohol have been hyped by the medical profession
as well as the alcohol industry is a sad state of affairs.
Heart
January 2002;87:32-36
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