Heavy Drinkers Run Strong Risk of Stroke

Men who drink heavily are four times more likely than non-drinkers to have a stroke, but light drinking actually appears to reduce such risk, British researchers say.

“If you’re a teetotaler, your risk of a stroke is twice that of a light drinker,” said Dr. Jaswinder Gill. “But heavy drinkers increase their risk.”

His study found a strong association between consuming 30 or more drinks a week and all types of strokes for men, even after accounting for whether they had high blood pressure or smoked. No such association was found for women--probably because there may have been too few heavy female drinkers in the study to provide a reliable conclusion.

Until now, little data had been gathered about any correlation between high alcohol consumption and strokes. Gill’s report appears in the current New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Phillip Wolf, a neurologist from the Boston University School of Medicine who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, cautioned that the numbers are too small to draw any hard conclusions about possible benefits of moderate drinking.

“The main message is that heavy drinkers have an increased risk of stroke,” he said.

In his study, Gill compared two groups of 230 patients ages 20 through 70. One group had suffered a variety of types of strokes while the second had no history of stroke.

Among those who drank between one and 10 drinks a week, 21 had strokes and 50 did not. The rate was similar for moderate drinkers, who consumed between 10 and 29 drinks a week. In the heavy drinking category--defined as 30 drinks or more each week--there were 41 stroke victims.

Researchers are uncertain how drinking may be associated with strokes, but alcohol appears to increase the clotting effect of blood and perhaps cause arteries to constrict, Gill said. But light to moderate drinking may raise the level of a certain type of protein that lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke.