Is moderate drinking good for the heart? – Harvard Gazette

A new study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital offers an explanation for why light to moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

Researchers are the first to find that low to moderate amounts of alcohol are associated with long-term reductions in stress signaling in the brain. This effect appears to largely explain the reduced heart disease risk seen in the light to moderate drinkers who participated in the study. The survey results are Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“We do not endorse the use of alcohol to reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes because of other concerning health effects of alcohol,” says the senior author and cardiologist. Ahmed Tawakol, co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center. “We wanted to understand how light to moderate drinking reduces cardiovascular disease, as demonstrated in multiple other studies. The goal will be to find other approaches that can replicate or induce the cardioprotective effects of alcohol without the adverse effects of alcohol.”

Previous epidemiologic studies suggest that light to moderate alcohol consumption (one drink per day for women and one to two drinks per day for men) is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. However, it is unclear whether alcohol induces cardiovascular effects or whether health behaviors, socioeconomic status, or other factors in light or moderate drinkers are cardioprotective. rice field.

Led by Kenechukwu Mezue and Michael T. Osborne, the study involved more than 50,000 individuals enrolled in the Massachusetts General Brigham Biobank. The first part of the study evaluated the relationship between light/moderate alcohol consumption and heart attack and stroke after controlling for a range of genetic, clinical, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors. The researchers found that light or moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a significantly reduced risk of cardiovascular disease events, even after considering other factors.

Next, they studied a subset of 754 people who had previously undergone PET/CT brain imaging (mainly for cancer surveillance) and found that mild/moderate resting stress-related neural network activity We investigated the effect of alcohol intake on

Brain imaging studies have shown that light-to-moderate drinkers have reduced stress signaling in the amygdala, a brain region associated with stress responses, compared with those who abstained from or rarely drank alcohol. It was shown that And when the researchers looked at these people’s histories of cardiovascular events, they found that light to moderate drinkers had fewer heart attacks and strokes. “We found that brain changes in light-to-moderate drinkers account for a significant portion of the cardioprotective effects,” Tawakol said.

It has long been known that alcohol reduces the amygdala’s reactivity to threatening stimuli during drinking. This study is the first to show that light to moderate alcohol consumption has long-lasting neurobiological effects that suppress amygdala activity, which can have significant downstream effects on the cardiovascular system. is shown.

“When the amygdala gets too alert, it activates the sympathetic nervous system, which increases blood pressure, increases heart rate, and triggers the release of inflammatory cells,” says Tawakol. “Chronic stress puts us at significant risk for hypertension, increased inflammation, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

Finally, the researchers found that light or moderate alcohol was even more effective in reducing heart attacks and strokes in people prone to chronically high stress reactions, such as those with a history of significant anxiety. I checked to see if there was In a sample of 50,000 patients, they found that light to moderate drinking was almost twice as likely to be cardioprotective in people with a history of anxiety disorders as in others. bottom.

However, the study also showed that light or moderate drinkers had a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, but an increased risk of cancer regardless of the amount of alcohol consumed. And when alcohol consumption increased (more than 14 drinks per week), heart attack risk began to increase and overall brain activity began to decline (which has been associated with adverse effects on cognitive health). There is a possibility).

The authors concluded that research should focus on finding new interventions that reduce brain stress activity without the adverse effects of alcohol. The research team is currently studying the effects of stress-reducing interventions such as exercise, meditation, and pharmacotherapy on stress-related neural networks and how they have cardiovascular effects.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.