A drink or two a day prevents men from heart disease

A Danish study found that middle-aged men that are having a drink daily have a better heart than these that are having a drink every now and then.

Men who drank moderately each day had a 41 percent lower risk of heart disease than abstainers, while the risk was only 7 percent lower for those who drank on no more than one day a week. The team found no such benefit to daily drinking for women, however.

“Modest to moderate amount of alcohol in the world of heart disease is reasonably healthy," said Dr. Richard A. Stein, clinical professor of medicine at Albert Einstein Medical Center in New York, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.

There was a study that followed over 22,400 women and more than 25,000 men ages 50 to 65 for nearly six years.
Researchers noted a considerable difference in benefit between the sexes. Compared to abstainers, women who drank once a week had a slightly greater reduction in cardiovascular risk (36 %) than women who drank every day (35%).

The researchers stressed that any potential benefit from daily drinking would be overwhelmed by the ill effects of heavy drinking -- more than a drink or two per day.

However, there was a worry that the study might lead people to believe they can healthily drink as much as they want.
For those who choose to drink, the heart association recommends no more than one to two drinks per day for men, and one drink per day for women. One drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine or one ounce of 100-proof whiskey.

The Danish results suggest "that if you are a man, you should get together with your friends every day and have a drink, and if you're a woman you should get together for a drink once a week and call it quits," Stein said.