The once-vaunted epidemiologic J-curve for alcohol intake and cardiovascular outcomes has flattened a bit further with a new analysis based on a cohort from a vintage randomized trial. In it, patients with heart failure (HF) stage B — characterized by ventricular dysfunction but no symptoms — who reported either moderate or high alcohol intake showed a fourfold jump in risk for disease progression, clinically or on echocardiography.
And there was no sign of protection at any level of alcohol intake among those who started the trial with HF stage A, characterized by risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, or diabetes, but without echo abnormalities.
