Researchers found that young to middle-aged women who drink eight or more alcoholic drinks per week (or more than one drink per day) are more likely to develop coronary heart disease than women who drink less alcohol. On average, it was significantly higher. The risk was found to be highest in men and women who reported occasional drinking or binge drinking, and the association between heart disease and alcohol appears to be particularly strong in women.

“When it comes to binge drinking, both men and women who consume excessive amounts of alcohol are at increased risk for heart disease,” said Jamal Rana, MD, a cardiologist at Permanente Medical Group and an adjunct research fellow at FACC. said. Kaiser Permanente Northern California Research Division and lead author of the study. “For women, we found that the risk was consistently higher, even in the absence of binge drinking. We typically see higher risk of heart disease in older women, so this We didn’t expect to see such results. It was definitely a surprise.”

The study focused on a diverse cohort of adults aged 18 to 65 who had no heart disease at the start of the study to examine the association between alcohol and heart disease. Data from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Integrated Health Organization’s more than 430,000 people was used to collect participants’ alcohol intake during primary care visits. The relationship between alcohol consumption and coronary heart disease diagnosis from 2014 to 2015 was analyzed over the subsequent four years. People who did not drink alcohol were not included in the study.

Low alcohol intake is considered 1 to 2 drinks per week, moderate is considered 3 to 14 drinks per week for men and 3 to 7 drinks per week for women, and high is considered 15 or more drinks per week for men and 8 or more drinks per week for women. Participants were also classified individually as to whether they binge-drink or not, with binge-drinking defined as having four or more drinks on the same day for men and three or more drinks for women. Defined.

Overall, 3,108 participants were diagnosed with coronary heart disease during the four-year follow-up, with higher rates of coronary heart disease found in those with higher alcohol intake. Women with high alcohol intake had a 45% higher risk of heart disease than women with low alcohol intake, and a 29% higher risk compared with women with moderate alcohol intake. Women who drank heavily were 68% more likely to develop heart disease than women who drank moderately. Overall, men with high alcohol intake were 33% more likely to develop heart disease compared to men with moderate alcohol intake.

“Women feel protected from heart disease until they get older, but this study shows that even in young or middle age, if you drink a lot of alcohol or binge eat, “It indicates that you are at risk for heart disease,” Lana said.

Additionally, women process alcohol differently than men, and alcohol has been shown to increase blood pressure and cause metabolic changes associated with inflammation and obesity.

“When we think of heart disease, the first thing that comes to mind is smoking, and we don’t think of alcohol as a vital sign,” Lana says. “I think there needs to be more awareness. Alcohol should be included as part of regular health checkups from now on.”

It has been noted that people tend to underestimate their alcohol intake, and as a result, this study is likely to provide a conservative estimate of the risk of heart disease associated with alcohol consumption.

This research was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.