A little bit of alcohol may be beneficial for men with high blood pressure: A recent study shows that those who consume an average of one drink a day are at lower risk for suffering a heart attack.
The Health Professionals Follow-up Study involved more than 11,000 men between the ages of 40 and 75 years who had high blood pressure and were asked about alcohol consumption several times over a 16-year period. During that time, the men suffered 279 fatal and 374 non-fatal heart attacks.
The researchers found that men who consumed approximately one drink per day had a 32 per cent decreased heart attack risk compared with men who abstained from drinking, after taking other risk factors such as age and smoking habits into account.
Alcohol consumption did not, however, decrease the risk for death or stroke.
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