Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.
The
Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found
large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.
Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.
Experts
are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other
diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per
year.
The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.
The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.
Crucially
the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk
by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom
ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain
fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who
are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.
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