Could Moderate Drinking Help Prevent Heart Disease?

Consuming alcohol in moderation can defend against coronary heart disease, but only for 15% of the population with a particular genotype against the disease, according to a new study from Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden.

In a study of 618 Swedes with coronary heart disease, along with a control group of 3,000 healthy subjects, researchers assigned participants to various categories based on the amount of alcohol they consumed. Subjects were also tested in order to identify a specific genotype—CETP TaqIB—that previous studies have determined to play a role in the health benefits of alcohol consumption. According to the authors, the findings of this study confirm those of earlier research, which maintain that moderate alcohol consumption helps protect those with the genotype against coronary heart disease.
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“The current message concerning alcoholic beverages and cardiovascular diseases is that moderation is, on average, protective, at least regarding coronary heart disease,” says Dag Thelle, MD, a professor emeritus at Sahlsgrenska Academy, and co-author of the study.

“Our results do not change that,” says Thelle, “but suggest that this average effect is due to a substantial risk reduction in a segment of the population.”

Advising alcohol consumption is not a proven preventive measure against coronary heart disease, “even if it were possible to routinely identify individuals with this particular genotype,” adds Kirsten Mehlig, PhD, a statistician and researcher in the department of public health and community medicine at the University of Gothenburg, and lead study author.

The different effects of alcohol, along with the risk of overuse and dependence, are the primary barriers to the performance of experimental studies designed to test a causal association in humans, she says, noting that “the present study is purely observational and meant to contribute to the theoretical understanding of the underlying processes.”

The usual self-reported amount of alcohol consumption “cannot be used as the basis for recommendations, and it cannot be excluded that coronary patients reported a changed consumption after the coronary event,” says Mehlig.

“For this reason, we are now following healthy cohort participants over time, with the aim to link genotype and alcohol consumption at the start of the study to the probability of subsequent coronary heart disease,” she says. “Though still not an experimental study, the prospective study design creates a higher level of evidence for causal associations.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference

Mehlig, Thelle D, et al. CETP TaqlB genotype modifies the association between alcohol and coronary heart disease: The INTERGENE case-control study. Alcohol. 2014.