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Light-to-Moderate Drinking Reduces Heart Disease Risk
Light-to-Moderate Drinking Reduces Heart Disease Risk ood news for men—light to moderate drinking reduces heart disease risk, but it’s unknown if women obtain the same benefit. A 12year study of 38,077 male health professionals found that men who drank alcohol three or more days per week had a reduced risk of heart attack compared with men who drank less frequently. Men who drank less than one drink a day had similar risk reduction to those who drank three. Many epidemiologic studies have reported that moderate drinking—for men two drinks a day—is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. This study looked at the relationship between quantity and frequency and found that it was the frequency of drinking—not the amount, the type of alcohol, or whether or not it was consumed with a meal—that was the key factor in lowered heart disease risk.
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Compared with men who drank less than once a week, men who consumed alcohol three or four days a week had approximately 2/3 (68 percent) the risk of heart attack, and men who consumed alcohol five to seven days per week had slightly less (63 percent) the risk. Study data suggested no additional cardiac benefit to drinking more than two drinks a day. Also, the study authors point out that the small number of study participants who drank roughly three and a half or more drinks (50 or more grams of alcohol) per day limited their ability to study the harmful effects of heavy drinking. However, heavy drinking has welldocumented adverse health effects. By the end of the 12-year followup, the investigators had documented 1,418 heart attacks. Men who consumed alcohol three or more times a week had a reduced risk of fatal or nonfatal heart attack, even when the amount consumed was only 10 grams of alcohol a day or less. A standard drink—a 12-ounce bottle of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80proof distilled spirits—has between 11 and 14 grams of alcohol. Researchers found little difference among different alcoholic beverage types in our study. This further emphasizes the role of frequent intake, rather than any specific beverage type, in the link between moderate drinking and heart attack risk. The article, “Roles of Drinking Pattern and Type of Alcohol Consumed in Coronary Heart Disease in Men,” appeared in the January 9, 2003, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Soy Nuts Help Lower Blood Pressure
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oy nuts helped women lower their blood pressure,
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AWHONN Lifelines
according to results of a new health study reported by Cornell University. The study was conducted by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Brookline, MA, was presented at a recent scientific meeting of the American Heart Association and was published in Cornell’s Food and Fitness Advisor. The eight-week study found that women with high blood pressure who ate a half-cup of soy nuts daily lowered their systolic blood pressure by 10 percent. Diastolic blood pressure was lowered by 7 percent. The Massachusetts study involved 60 postmenopausal women. Researchers told the American Heart Association meeting that their study results are promising, and they said a larger study is needed to confirm the soy effects on blood pressure.
HRT Choice Difficult for Women
W
omen and their health care providers are having difficulty in deciding how to implement the information generated last July by the Women’s Health Initiative regarding hormone therapy into a decision as to whether to take HRT or not. A report released by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts provides new information on the difficult choices women and their physicians began facing after the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published two studies questioning the relative safety of combination estrogen/progestin hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products. In the four months following the July 2002 publication of the studies, 36 percent of women in a sample of Express Scripts members stopped using HRT combination products, more than four times the discontinuation rate during the same period the preceding year. On the other hand, 57 percent continued using the HRT combination products.
Volume 7
Issue 2
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Compared with men who drank less than once a week, men who consumed alcohol three or four days a week had approximately 2/3 (68 percent) the risk of heart attack, and men who consumed alcohol five to seven days per week had slightly less (63 percent) the risk. Study data suggested no additional cardiac benefit to drinking more than two drinks a day. Also, the study authors point out that the small number of study participants who drank roughly three and a half or more drinks (50 or more grams of alcohol) per day limited their ability to study the harmful effects of heavy drinking. However, heavy drinking has welldocumented adverse health effects. By the end of the 12-year followup, the investigators had documented 1,418 heart attacks. Men who consumed alcohol three or more times a week had a reduced risk of fatal or nonfatal heart attack, even when the amount consumed was only 10 grams of alcohol a day or less. A standard drink—a 12-ounce bottle of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80proof distilled spirits—has between 11 and 14 grams of alcohol. Researchers found little difference among different alcoholic beverage types in our study. This further emphasizes the role of frequent intake, rather than any specific beverage type, in the link between moderate drinking and heart attack risk. The article, “Roles of Drinking Pattern and Type of Alcohol Consumed in Coronary Heart Disease in Men,” appeared in the January 9, 2003, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Soy Nuts Help Lower Blood Pressure
S
oy nuts helped women lower their blood pressure,
110
AWHONN Lifelines
according to results of a new health study reported by Cornell University. The study was conducted by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Brookline, MA, was presented at a recent scientific meeting of the American Heart Association and was published in Cornell’s Food and Fitness Advisor. The eight-week study found that women with high blood pressure who ate a half-cup of soy nuts daily lowered their systolic blood pressure by 10 percent. Diastolic blood pressure was lowered by 7 percent. The Massachusetts study involved 60 postmenopausal women. Researchers told the American Heart Association meeting that their study results are promising, and they said a larger study is needed to confirm the soy effects on blood pressure.
HRT Choice Difficult for Women
W
omen and their health care providers are having difficulty in deciding how to implement the information generated last July by the Women’s Health Initiative regarding hormone therapy into a decision as to whether to take HRT or not. A report released by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts provides new information on the difficult choices women and their physicians began facing after the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published two studies questioning the relative safety of combination estrogen/progestin hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products. In the four months following the July 2002 publication of the studies, 36 percent of women in a sample of Express Scripts members stopped using HRT combination products, more than four times the discontinuation rate during the same period the preceding year. On the other hand, 57 percent continued using the HRT combination products.
Volume 7
Issue 2