Alcohol benefits may be overestimated

The benefits of alcohol for cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes may have been overestimated by observational studies, according to a recent analysis.

While moderate consumption of wine may prevent CVD events, many confounding factors exist, including lifestyle, genetic and socioeconomic associations with wine drinking, which likely explain the interaction between wine and low CVD events.

A team of investigators conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed publications from an extensive query of Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from inception to March 2022. Studies reporting the association of alcohol consumption in terms of quantity and beverage type with CVD events were included.

A total of 1,579,435 individuals based on 56 cohorts from several countries were analysed. Moderate wine consumption, defined as 1‒4 drinks per week, appeared to contribute to a decrease in cardiovascular mortality risk when compared with beer or spirits.

However, this benefit waned with greater consumption, with a higher risk for CVD deaths observed for heavier daily or weekly alcohol consumption across all types of beverages.

“In individuals without liver disease, low to moderate amounts of weekly or daily alcohol consumption may be beneficial to cardiovascular health,” the investigators said. “Specifically, strong evidence has suggested that low-moderate amounts of weekly or daily red wine consumption may be particularly associated with low cardiovascular events.”

Further prospective study of alcohol and all-cause mortality, as well as cancer, is warranted.