Prevention: At Middle Age, Add Alcohol to the Diet?

By Nicholas Bakalar


Several recent studies have found that moderate drinking is associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease. Now a new study, published in the March issue of The American Journal of Medicine, suggests that teetotalers who begin having a drink or two a day in middle age may also get significant benefit.

The researchers followed 7,697 healthy men and women ages 45 to 64 enrolled in a large study of atherosclerotic illness, focusing on 442 who were nondrinkers at the start of the study but moderate drinkers at the six-year point. Then they tracked this group for cardiovascular disease over the next four years and compared them with people who continued to abstain.

After controlling for age, physical activity, smoking and other cardiovascular risks, they found that new moderate drinkers were 38 percent less likely than abstainers to suffer a cardiovascular event during the four-year period. On average, they also had lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure, and there was no increase in mortality.

So, should middle-aged nondrinkers start imbibing?

“If there’s a benefit to it, I’m not sure it should be restricted to people who just didn’t happen to start yet,” said the lead author, Dr. Dana E. King, professor of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. “Exercise is good for you, but you have to be cautious if you start in middle age. In the same way, moderate alcohol consumption can be part of a healthy lifestyle if you don’t have contraindications to it.”