Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994 TAG: 9411170127
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Medium
Men who had two to four drinks a week had the lowest rate of death from all causes during an 11-year study, the researchers said Wednesday.
Many studies over the past 20 years have shown that people who drink moderately reduce their risk of dying from heart disease by about 40 percent. The evidence has become so convincing that some heart specialists have cautiously recommended moderate drinking for good health.
But while heart disease is the nation's No. 1 killer, it is not the only one. Some fear that alcohol's benefits for the heart could be offset by its other hazards, such as cancer and accidents.
To sort this out, researchers from Harvard Medical School examined the effects of drinking on all causes of death, not just heart disease, in 22,071 male doctors. Over an 11-year period, they compared the risk of death in the drinkers with that of people who seldom or never drank.
They found that men who had two to four drinks a week had the lowest death rate - about 22 percent lower than those who shunned alcohol. Men who had up to six drinks a week also ran a lower risk than the nondrinkers.
But by the time the men averaged one drink a day, the benefits of alcohol were wiped out. Their risk of dying was identical to that of those who did not drink at all.
Beyond a drink a day, the risk went up sharply. Those who averaged two or more drinks a day had a death rate that was 63 percent higher than that of the nondrinkers.
Moderate drinking is often defined as one to three drinks a day. But the new study suggests that healthy moderation is probably considerably lower.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.