Even very light alcohol intake is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease compared with not drinking at all, and the risk increases exponentially as alcohol intake rises, even at moderate levels, a new study shows.
"Our findings suggest that the observed benefit in individuals with light to moderate alcohol intake, which is consistently shown in epidemiological studies, is likely due to other positive lifestyle factors that are common in these individuals who drink lightly," senior author Krishna Aragam, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.
"Our results also showed that while all levels of alcohol were linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the association was not linear. Rather, light alcohol intake was associated with rather modest risk increases, but there were exponential increases in cardiovascular risk with increasing amounts of alcohol consumption," he said.
As the risk gradient appeared to increase quite sharply even between 1 and 2 drinks per day, Aragam suggested that what might be regarded as safe levels of drinking may trend downward in the future.
The study was published online March 25 in JAMA Network Open.
The cohort study used data from the UK Biobank, collected between 2006 and 2010 with follow-up until 2016, to assess the relationship between various levels of alcohol consumption and risk for cardiovascular disease.