Drinking alcohol in moderation is beneficial to the heart, a new study has revealed.
Those who drink wine, spirits or beer regularly are less prone to heart failure and heart attacks than people who rarely or never drink.
Three to five drinks a week are part of a heart-healthy lifestyle, scientists concluded.
Drinking a little alcohol every day can be part of a healthy lifestyle, Imre Janszky, a professor of social medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology said.
When consumed in moderation, alcohol does more good than harm, he added.
And he said, it doesn’t matter whether a person drinks wine, liquor or beer.
‘It’s primarily the alcohol that leads to more good cholesterol, among other things,’ he said.
‘But alcohol can also cause higher blood pressure, so it’s best to drink moderate amounts relatively often.’
With colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Professor Janszky and his team have published two studies looking at the link between alcohol and heart health.
The most recent focuses on heart failure, while another, published in September, looks at acute myocardial infarction.
In both cases, research shows people who regularly drink alcohol have better cardiovascular health than those who consume little or no alcohol.
The studies showed that those who drank three to five drinks each week were 33 per cent less prone to heart failure than those who abstained, or drank infrequently.
In the case of heart attacks, the risk was reduced by 28 per cent with each additional one-drink increment.
Researchers said the findings were no surprise.
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