The danger zone: more than 2 drinks daily
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Jan. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Too much alcohol in middle age can increase your stroke risk as much as high blood pressure or diabetes, a new study suggests.
People who average more than two drinks a day have a 34 percent higher risk of stroke compared to those whose daily average amounts to less than half a drink, according to findings published Jan. 29 in the journal Stroke.
Researchers also found that people who drink heavily in their 50s and 60s tend to suffer strokes earlier in life than light drinkers or non-imbibers.
"Our study showed that drinking more than two drinks per day can shorten time to stroke by about five years," said lead author Pavla Kadlecova, a statistician at St. Anne's University Hospital International Clinical Research Center in the Czech Republic.
The enhanced stroke risk created by heavy drinking rivals the risk posed by high blood pressure or diabetes, the researchers concluded. By age 75, however, blood pressure and diabetes became better predictors of stroke.
The study involved 11,644 middle-aged Swedish twins who were followed in an attempt to examine the effect of genetics and lifestyle factors on risk of stroke.
Researchers analyzed results from a Swedish registry of same-sex twins who answered questionnaires between 1967 and 1970. By 2010, the registry yielded 43 years of follow-up, including hospital records and cause-of-death data.
Almost 30 percent of participants had a stroke. They were categorized as light, moderate, heavy or nondrinkers based on the questionnaires, and researchers compared the risk from alcohol and health risks such as high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.
The researchers found that for heavy drinkers, alcohol produced a high risk of stroke in late middle age, starting at age 50. By comparison, light drinkers' or nondrinkers' stroke risk increased gradually with age.
Among identical twins, siblings who had a stroke drank more than their siblings who hadn't had a stroke, suggesting that midlife drinking raises stroke risks regardless of genetics and early lifestyle, the researchers said.
Midlife heavy drinkers -- those in their 50s and 60s -- were likely to have a stroke five years earlier in life, irrespective of genetic and lifestyle factors, the study found.
source : Too Much Alcohol at Midlife Raises Stroke Risk, Study Finds
