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Gematigd alcoholgebruik geeft aanzienlijk minder doden.*
Uit een onderzoek onder 14.000 mensen over ruim 5 jaar blijkt dat GEMATIGD alcoholgebruik de kans op doodgaan aan hartziektes wel tot ruim 40% kan verlagen. Een dood door andere oorzaken neemt met een vergelijkbaar percentage af. Alleen op de dood door kanker heeft het geen effect.
The findings from a new study
suggest that alcohol consumption is inversely linked with death from
cardiovascular disease and from all other causes in men with high blood
pressure.
These results are consistent
with numerous reports that have linked moderate alcohol use with beneficial
effects in patients with heart disease.
The new study, which is
reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, involved more than 14,000 men
with a history of high blood pressure who were free from cardiovascular
disease at the start of the study. The average follow-up period was 5.4 years.
A total of 1018 men died
during the study period, more than half from cardiovascular disease, lead
author Dr. Maciej K. Malinski from the University of Massachusetts in
Worcester and colleagues state.
The researchers found that the
risk of death from cardiovascular disease decreased as the frequency of
alcohol use rose. Compared with abstainers, monthly, weekly, and daily alcohol
users were 17 percent, 39 percent, and 44 percent less likely, respectively,
to die from cardiovascular disease.
A similar trend was noted for
death from all causes, but weekly and daily users had nearly the same risk
reduction.
Moderate alcohol consumption
seemed to have no effect on cancer mortality, the investigators point out.
"In light of major
clinical and public health problems associated with heavy drinking,
recommendations regarding alcohol use must be made on an individual basis
after carefully assessing cardiovascular risk profile and the risks and
benefits of any changes in drinking behavior," the authors emphasize.
However, patients with high blood pressure "who are able to maintain light to moderate alcohol intake have no compelling reason to change their (maart 2004)