Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

[Mohun]

Someone asked for more recent information on alcohol studies. This one is fairly new and relevant to the heart healthy discussion.

Alcohol and Your Health : Disease Proof

A few years ago the University of California?s Berkeley Wellness Letter reported on new research about the so-called heart-healthy ?benefits? of alcohol consumption. Previous studies had led to a recommendation that moderate consumption of red wine?but not other alcoholic beverages?helped reduce the risk of heart attack. What did the new research reveal?

If we were to rely on the Berkeley Wellness Letter for this information, the latest news would be that moderate consumption of any alcoholic beverage?red or white wine, even beer and spirits?can be heart-healthy. Unfortunately, their latest news is still woefully out-of-date. More recent studies show that even moderate alcohol consumption is linked to significantly increased incidence of atrial fibrillation,1 a condition that can lead to stroke, and to higher rates of breast cancer.2,3

Alcohol is not actually heart-healthy. It simply has anti-clotting effects, much like aspirin.

Researchers have found that even moderate consumption of alcohol?including wine?interferes with blood clotting and, thereby, reduces heart attacks in high-risk populations?people who eat the typical, disease-promoting American diet.

Moderate drinking is defined as a maximum of two drinks for men. Consuming more than this is associated with increased fat around the waist4 and other potential problems. For example, alcohol consumption leads to mild withdrawal sensations the next day that are commonly mistaken for hunger, which leads people to eat more than is genuinely necessary, resulting in weight gain.

It is worth nothing that alcohol?s anti-clotting properties have only been shown to grant some protective effect against heart attacks for people eating unhealthfully. There are no studies showing that this protective effect is valuable in low-risk individuals consuming healthful, plant-based diets with resultant low cholesterol levels. In my view, it is much wiser to avoid the detrimental effects of alcohol completely and protect yourself from heart disease with nutritional excellence. 1. Jancin B. Just a few drinks raise risk of atrial fibrillation. Family Phsyician News. January 11, 2002;4.

[A Work in Progress]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

This is interesting...

Off topic, here, but you have me thinking again about the question of alcohol and dementia risk. My mother has a dementia that may or may not be Alzheimer's. Strokes, etc., have been pretty much ruled out. Onset was at around age 88. But her picture is not quite typical of Alzheimer's. She was a life-long drinker, and drank heavily in her younger years; in later years, it was 2 small drinks a night, every night. I cannot help but wonder if her life-long alcohol consumption contributed to her dementia. She has no known family history of dementia of any sort...

Of course, it is well known that long-term heavy consumption of alcohol can cause a form of dementia known as Korsakoff's. But, so far, the literature I have reviewed indicates that there are no data that strongly or persuasively indicate, one way or the other, that alcohol contributes (or doesn't contribute) to (non-Korsakoff's) dementia, or whether it might even be a protective factor with some forms of dementia... whether Alzheimer's or some other variety. So it is all conjecture at this point... but I cannot help but be strongly suspicious that long-term daily (or frequent) doses of a substance that impairs cognitive functioning is, indeed, likely to cause permanent impairment in cognitive functioning, possibly to the point of outright, non-reversible dementia.

[peacenik]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

it does kill brain cells right? maybe after a certain point, they just don't regenerate?

[peacenik]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

thanks for the info mohun!
more reasons not to drink for me...as if i need more!!!

[Accountable for Me]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

You are a wealth of 'research' these days, Mohun! Thanks for searching for the information and sharing it!

After reading many threads here lately about the good & the bad news about alcohol; I believe that this will be one of those 'eggs are good for you/eggs are bad for you' types of thing.

Why not take an asprin once a day? Or drink some tea? An asprin can help in preventing heart attacks and strokes; it is good for the circulation, etc. (if you can take asprin) They come coated at 81mgs for taking once a day. I also believe that tea (regular tea) has a lot of the same properties as red wine? I believe I heard it somewhere. I may need to look it up again.

I am NOT dissing drinking in moderation here. To each their own. I take the asprin and have some regular tea with honey in it once a day as a preventive measure.

Sorry to hijack, Mohun... just a few thoughts I had after reading up on these research threads.

[Kid Shelleen]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

Everyone sees what they want to see, I guess...

WIP,
When I read your thoughts, I tend to lean more toward believing in the possible protective properties you mentioned.
After all, she's made it until age 88, having been a drinker;
when she changed her habit, she began deteriorating.
Alcohol is a vasodilator as well as a blood thinner.
That vasodilation MIGHT have gotten more circulation to the brain's lost outposts...
We can only guess though, as you pointed out.
So many people don't even live CLOSE to 88 years.
What a long, and I'll bet, interesting, life she must have had!

There are SO many causes of Idiopathic Dementia,WIP,
as I'm sure you've discovered in your reading.
You could research it forever; it's very interesting.
Some miraculous reversals have been documented when some very simple, yet obscure conditions were uncovered.
In your situation ,it's also personal besides being interesting, I suppose.
Good luck.
~Kid~

PS: My MIL lives downstairs; 85 YO, drinks wine or Vodka more often than me. Finishes the NYT crossword every day and drives herself to the grocery...Who can tell???:H

pps:Peacenick, have you heard "The Buffalo Theory" of alcohol and brain cells...(Hee Hee...Do you WANT to????)

[Accountable for Me]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

I also have an aging grandparent living with me. She always had her glass of wine at about 4pm. She is 79. She wanted to stop having that drink; in support of me (how very nice) and do you know what? She has never been in better health. Her BP is down, she has lost some weight, has more energy, sleeps better. Not to mention her SAD wasn't as bad this year as it was last year. And this year the weather sucked and continues to suck.

She is also boderline diabetic. Took pills for it. Her levels have never been better.

So, who friggen knows? It is like the egg thing I said in my prior post. It can be great for some to have that glass of wine and may not be so great for others.

[Kid Shelleen]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

I can see it..

AfM,
I think anyone with depressive tedencies and multiple health problems REALLY has to be careful..
Alcohol, even in moderation, obviously isn't for everyone..
KS

[A Work in Progress]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

AFM I agree with you... there are so many factors that are not taken into account in the studies that exist so far (practically speaking, genuinely experimental research is often impossible with human subjects, so we can only look at correlations)....

Kid, I cannot imagine you are seriously suggesting that if my mother had continued drinking heavily (to the point of intoxication, on a daily basis) into her 80's, instead of reducing her consumption to "moderate" levels (1-2 ounces of vodka, daily), she would not have developed dementia... ? Or was that a joke? I must have misunderstood you...

[Kid Shelleen]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

In your opinion, WIP...

How often do you misunderstand people?
You seem pretty intelligent; your answer might be: "RarelY".

I think "Moderate" drinking would be the best bet for her,as opposed to heavy drinking.
As I said there are SOOO many reasons, simple and complex for dementia in the elderly.

Alcohol can help prevent dementia
By Celia Hall, Medical Editor

PEOPLE who have between one and three alcoholic drinks a day can reduce their risk of dementia in later life by up to 70 per cent, according to Dutch researchers.
They found that light to moderate drinking reduced the risk of all types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, by 42 per cent, and of dementia caused by restricted blood vessels by almost twice as much.
The study by Dr Monique Breteler, from the Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, followed 8,000 people over the age of 55 for six years. In that time 146 developed Alzheimer's disease, 29 developed vascular dementia and 22 suffered other forms of dementia.
Dr Breteler says in the medical journal The Lancet today that the type of alcohol taken did not matter. "In recent years evidence has been accumulating that vascular factors may be involved in the cause of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease," she said.
Dr Richard Harvey, research director of the Alzheimer's Society, warned against drinking excessive amounts of alcohol but said: "This interesting study confirms the results of previous research which has suggested that light to moderate consumption is actually good for our health.
"It is very much the case that a little of what you fancy appears to do you good," he said.
The researchers say several mechanisms could explain the effect. Alcohol can reduce clumping of platelets in the blood and can alter the blood/ fat ratio.
Drinking a moderate amount of alcohol may also have an effect on the part of the brain involved with memory and learning.

[A Work in Progress]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

OK Kid, I am sure that somewhere in your studies you learned that a single research study does not amount to anything except a signal for other researchers to work on confirming or disconfirming... replicating or failing to replicate... those findings... intriguing but, by itself, meaningless... Putting the headline in huge screaming font does not make it any more valid or significant...

[Kid Shelleen]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

Sorry...

I just dragged and clicked it, I didn't realize it was so LARGE!!!:H
(I fixed it)

[A Work in Progress]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

Kid Shelleen;568529 wrote: How often do you misunderstand people?
You seem pretty intelligent; your answer might be: "RarelY".

I think "Moderate" drinking would be the best bet for her.

OK... now you have really given me a great laugh. Offering me advice about managing my mother's dementia... ? Thanks, fella, you are truly a hoot.

Oh and quite the compliment from you regarding your assessment of my intelligence... OK, enough "fun" for today. This is beyond silly.

[Kid Shelleen]

Alcohol may be bad for your heart, even in small quantities.

Well...

I'm glad you got a great laugh; I don't think you do it often enough.

And if we were better friends I could get you at least a bit more info on managing your Mother's dementia.
My wife works the Neuro ICU and just LOVES to talk.

And accept the compliment; you might not get that many more.
The jury is still out, though.
There is, as you know, a HUGE difference between someone who is educated or educable, and someone who is actually intelligent...
Stats and vocabulary can only hide so much.

Thanks it was "fun" in a way...
~Kid~

A Work in Progress;568573 wrote:

OK... now you have really given me a great laugh. Offering me advice about managing my mother's dementia... ? Thanks, fella, you are truly a hoot.

Oh and quite the compliment from you regarding your assessment of my intelligence... OK, enough "fun" for today. This is beyond silly.