Moderate Alcohol Intake Boosts 1 in 6 Hearts

Moderate alcohol consumption doesn't benefit everyone's heart, according to a new study.

Previous studies revealed that moderate consumption helps protect people against coronary heart disease. However, the latest findings suggest that this might only be true for 15 percent of people who have a particular set of genes.

Swedish researchers compared data from 618 people with coronary heart disease to a healthy control group of 3,000 people.  Researchers said the people in the study were divided into various groups based on their alcohol intake. Participants were also tested for a particular genotype  (CETP TaqIB) that previous studies had found to play a role in the health benefits of alcohol consumption.

Researchers found that moderate alcohol consumption helps protect people with the genotype against coronary heart disease.

"In other words, moderate drinking has a protective effect among only 15% of the general population," researcher Professor Dag Thelle, Professor Emeritus at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, said in a news release.

Thelle and his team noted that the traditional advice given about moderate alcohol consumption isn't accurate for everyone.

"Moderate drinking alone does not have a strong protective effect," co-researcher Professor Lauren Lissner said in a news release. "Nor does this particular genotype. But the combination of the two appears to significantly reduce the risk of coronary heart disease."

"Our study represents a step in the right direction but a lot more research is needed. Assuming that we are able to describe these mechanisms, it may be a simple matter one day to perform genetic testing and determine whether someone belongs to the lucky 15 percent. That would be useful to know when offering advice on healthy alcohol consumption. But the most important thing is to identify new means of using the body's resources to prevent coronary heart disease," Thelle concluded.

The findings are published in the journal Alcohol.