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Healthy news for middle-aged drinkers

Published:  23 July, 2008

Middle-aged adults can reduce their risk of heart disease by more than a third by drinking alcohol, a new study shows.

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) found people who start consuming alcohol moderately in middle-age, had a 38 percent lower chance of developing cardiovascular disease than did their non-drinking counterparts.

"Most people are aware that moderate alcohol use can be part of a healthy lifestyle, yet current guidelines caution non-drinkers against starting to drink in middle age," said Dana King, lead author of the study.

"We wanted to evaluate whether adopting moderate alcohol consumption in middle-age would lower cardiovascular risk. We were excited to find that moderate alcohol consumption, or one to six servings a week, lowered cardiovascular risk for our participants."

In contrast to a study in the British Public Library of Science journal, the South Carolina study showed no increase in blood pressure for participants who drank moderately (two drinks per day or fewer for men, one drink per day or fewer for women) during the four years of the study.

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