To Drink or Not to Drink?
Reported October 18, 2007
BOSTON (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) — You may have been the king of keg-stands back in your college hey-day. But will those booze binges affect you later in life?
New research suggests it might. College students who drink heavily can double their levels of a blood marker called c-reactive protein (CRP). This protein raises your risk of heart disease. Other research shows drinking heavy amounts of alcohol over time can actually decrease brain volume.
“Even occasional episodes of heavy drinking may be bad for one’s health. In our studies, even people who binge drink on occasion seem to have very substantial increased risks of dying, say after a heart attack,” says Kenneth Mukamal, M.D., and internist from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
But not drinking at all isn’t the answer, either. Nondrinkers have higher CRP numbers than those who drink a little — bringing new meaning to the message that moderation is key.
So what exactly is a moderate amount? Dr. Mukamal says it’s one drink a day for women, two for men — as many days a week as you want — and any type of alcoholic beverage. This raises your good cholesterol levels, helps lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes, serves as a blood thinner, and may actually even ward off dementia.
“We think about alcohol, in some respects, as sort of a j-shaped curve where, at light doses, we seem to lower our risks of certain diseases, but clearly at higher doses, we increase those risks,” says Dr. Mukamel.
Dr. Mukamal also says you won’t get any of the health benefits from moderate drinking until you hit your 50s. Until then — just saying no is really the healthiest way to go.
In the study on college students, heavy drinking was defined as three or more drinks at least three days a week or at least five drinks two days a week.
For more information, please contact:
Kenneth Mukamal, M.D.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
(617) 667-9600
