{"id":3992,"date":"2015-04-16T10:01:48","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T10:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=3992"},"modified":"2015-04-16T10:01:48","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T10:01:48","slug":"heavy-drinking-may-cause-more-strokes-than-hypertension-does-in-mid-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/heavy-drinking-may-cause-more-strokes-than-hypertension-does-in-mid-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy Drinking May Cause More Strokes Than Hypertension Does in Mid-Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Parachemableedwithedema\"<\/a>
Parachema bleed with edema. (Source: James Heilman, M.D.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many studies\u00a0indicate two or fewer alcoholic beverages a day may be\u00a0good for men\u2019s hearts.\u00a0But a new paper\u00a0suggests danger could be a heartbeat away: more than two drinks a day in middle age may raise men\u2019s stroke risk more than hypertension (high blood pressure, HBP) or diabetes does. Furthermore, it \u00a0raises risk early on, whereas stroke risk from HBP begins at age 75; diabetes, age 80.<\/span><\/p>\n

And women? Their stroke risk rises if they drink more than a single alcoholic beverage a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Published in the American Heart Association (AHA) journalStroke<\/em>,\u00a0the study<\/span><\/a>\u00a0involved 11,644 middle-aged Swedish twins who were followed for 43 years. An average of more than two drinks daily (“heavy drinking”) was compared to an average of less than half a drink daily (“light drinking”) by a team led by St. Anne\u2019s University Hospital statistician Pavla Kadlecova. The team found that mid-life heavy drinkers, in their 50s and 60s, have stroke five years earlier than light drinkers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, heavy drinkers had a 34 percent higher risk of stroke.<\/span><\/p>\n

The major surprise for Kadlecova was that \u201calcohol consumption might be such an important risk factor for younger people (age 50 to 60 years), and that this risk is comparable with known factors (diabetes and hypertension) in later age,\u201d she told\u00a0Bioscience Technology<\/em>. \u201cShortening time to stroke by five years was quite surprising as well, but we did not possess any assumptions, as no similar analysis had been performed before. Our study shows risk factors for cardiovascular disease changes with age, which should be motivation for further research for stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Most interesting to Columbia University neurologist John Brust was the study’s finding that “the risk of getting stroke,\u00a0due to\u00a0this kind of drinking,\u00a0is greatest when\u00a0done in midlife, as opposed to later life.” Brust was uninvolved in the\u00a0research.\u00a0“As\u00a0Stroke<\/em>\u00a0is a pretty rigorous journal, this\u00a0paper offers an interesting parenthesis to earlier work,”\u00a0he told\u00a0Bioscience Technology<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Past studies\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Past studies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0have\u00a0equated<\/span><\/a>\u00a0heavy drinking with stroke\u00a0risk<\/span><\/a>. And a group publishing in\u00a0Neurology<\/em>\u00a0last year reported that drinking more than two alcoholic drinks (one alcoholic drink equals 12 oz. of beer, 4 oz. of wine, or 1.5 oz. of 80-proof liquor, according to AHA) a day effectively aged the brains of middle aged men by six years. See the\u00a0Bioscience Technology<\/em>\u00a0story<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on this.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the large\u00a0Stroke\u00a0<\/em>study is the first to show how the heavy drinking\/stroke effect changes with age in relation to other stroke risk factors. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The current study<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Kadlecova\u2019s group looked at data from the Swedish Twin Registry of same-sex twins who answered questionnaires between 1967 and 1970. All of the twins were younger than 60 at the start. As of 2010, the team had in its hands 43 years of follow-up from cause of death to hospital discharge data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers divided up the data based on high blood pressure, stroke (both ischemic and hemorrhagic), diabetes, and other cardiovascular disorders. Smoking was also factored in.<\/span><\/p>\n

In total, about 30 percent of participants experienced a stroke.\u00a0 Among identical twins, those who had a stroke drank more alcohol than siblings who hadn’t. This indicated that mid-life drinking raises stroke risks outside of genetics and lifestyle earlier in life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The study jives with the AHA\u2019s recommended limit of two drinks a day (24 oz. of beer, 8 oz. of wine, 1.5 oz. 90-proof liquor) for men and half that for women.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur study showed that the risk of stroke associated with alcohol is moderated by age,\u201d Kadlecova told\u00a0Bioscience Technology<\/em>. \u201cThis could help to explain some differences in results of stroke-alcohol studies, that is, younger versus older populations, and short versus longer follow-up. Further, we used data from very long follow-up. In general, for comparison of results you should look at what population was studied, what was the follow-up, and what was the reference group. We chose very-light drinkers\u2014as opposed to nondrinkers\u2014as the reference category to avoid potential bias caused by ex-drinkers who had stopped drinking alcohol for health problems, and may possess pre-existing susceptibilities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hemorrhagic (bleeding) strokes predominated<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Past studies have found, by contrast, that light to moderate drinking can be beneficial to the cardiovascular system, generally. Light to moderate drinking may even be protective against one specific form of stroke:\u00a0ischemic<\/span><\/a>\u00a0stroke. (Ischemic stroke is caused by clots blocking blood flow in the brain. Hemorrhagic stroke is caused by bleeding in the brain.)<\/span><\/p>\n

In the current study, the vast majority of strokes among heavy drinkers were hemorrhagic, involving leaking blood. There were far fewer ischemic strokes.<\/span><\/p>\n

One reason for this, the Kadlecova group reported, is that light to moderate amounts of alcohol may improve the blood flow that is blocked in ischemic stroke (versus flowing too heavily, in hemorrhagic stroke). \u201cBecause of a relatively low number of hemorrhagic events (406 cases), we focused our analyses on the overall risk of stroke,\u201d the team wrote. \u201cStill, the analysis by subtype of stroke showed that risk of hemorrhagic stroke for heavy alcohol consumers is high relative to ischemic stroke. It may be that alcohol consumption could protect against ischemic stroke to some extent by improving thrombolytic profile and increasing blood flow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the study emphasized that \u201clight to moderate drinking\u201d differs dramatically in men and women. \u201cModerate alcohol consumption (consuming 1\u20132 drinks\/d on average) in women showed similarly harmful effect as heavy drinking (>2 drinks\/d on average) in men,\u201d the team wrote. This is \u201cin accordance with the American Heart Association\u00a0recommendations:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Men should consume no more than 2 drinks\/d, and nonpregnant women should consume no more than 1 drink\/d.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why would drinking in midlife have a greater impact on stroke risk than drinking in later life? “In my opinion,” Kadlecova\u00a0concluded to\u00a0Bioscience Technology,\u00a0<\/em>“it is due to the fact that in older age, the disease risk factors for diabetes and hypertension are more important. In younger age those diseases are not so developed.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many studies\u00a0indicate two or fewer alcoholic beverages a day may be\u00a0good for men\u2019s hearts.\u00a0But a new paper\u00a0suggests danger could be a heartbeat away: more than two drinks a day in middle age may raise men\u2019s stroke risk more than hypertension (high blood pressure, HBP) or diabetes does. Furthermore, it \u00a0raises risk early on, whereas stroke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",831,977,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema-255x300.png",255,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",750,882,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",750,882,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",831,977,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",831,977,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",680,800,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",485,570,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",600,705,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",510,600,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",417,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",306,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",55,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",640,752,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",82,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Parachemableedwithedema.png",150,176,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}