Written by Taylor Woosley, Staff Writer. Study results show that middle-aged men with light to moderate alcohol consumption have lower CVD risk than men who consume very light to no alcohol, independent of a variety of health, psychosocial, and behavioral factors.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes a range of diseases that involve the heart and blood vessels1. CVD has reached pandemic proportions and is the number one cause of morbidity worldwide2. Hypertension and coronary heart disease are the most common forms of CVD3. High blood pressure is triggered by a range of factors, including the interaction of genetic and environmental components, and it has been predicted that by the year 2025, 29% of the world’s adults will suffer from hypertension4.
While diet and lifestyle are modifiable risk factors for CVD, other factors, such as alcohol consumption, has been studied for its potential role in CVD development5. Although high alcohol intake is dangerous, prospective studies have reported that moderate intake (about one to two drinks per day, or 100g of alcohol per week) is associated with a somewhat lower risk of CVD compared to no alcohol intake6. However, various research has also indicated that the observed cardioprotective effects of light to moderate alcohol intake may be largely influenced by confounding lifestyle factors7.
Using data from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA), a longitudinal study of aging that began in 2003, McEvoy et al. conducted an observational study to explore the association of moderate alcohol consumption and cardiovascular health. Participants consisted of twins who were predominantly non-Hispanic white men with similar health and lifestyle characteristics of other U.S. men in their age range (56-67 years). Subjects (n=908) for this study were mainly those who completed the wave 2 research visit from 2009-2013.
A structured medical interview was completed to assess alcohol use, with participants being asked how many drinks they consumed in the last two weeks and what type of alcohol they consumed regularly. Alcohol use was treated as a categorical variable and defined into six categories:
| Never drinkers | Have not consumed more than 20 drinks in their life |
| Former drinkers | Have consumed more than 20 drinks in their life but reported no alcohol consumption in the last 14 days |
| Very light drinkers | Those who consumed 1-4 drinks in the past 14 days |
| Light drinkers | Those who consumed 5-14 drinks in the past 14 days |
| Moderate drinkers | Those who consumed 15-28 drinks in the past 14 days |
| At-risk drinkers | Those who consumed >28 drinks in the past 14 days |
Three established CVD risk scores were evaluated as the main study analysis: The Framingham Risk Score (FRS), the atherosclerotic CVD (ASCVD) risk score, and the Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) Severity score. The FRS is a sex-specific multi-variable algorithm for assessing 10-year risk of developing CVD, the ASCVD score offers sex- and race-specific 10-year risk estimates of a first hand ASCVD event, and the MetS Severity score is a continuous score derived from the five traditional MetS components using a factor analysis approach. Secondary analyses consisted of analyzing alcohol associations with clinically high CVD risk using specific cut-points to define high CVD risk.
Height, BMI, and waist measurements were obtained by trained technicians. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was measured twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon. Blood samples were drawn to assess fasting glucose, total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. Physical covariates (demographic, behavioral, health history) were assessed through standardized questionnaires. Generalized linear mixed effects models (GLMM) was used to assess between alcohol-group differences in sociodemographic and health-related measures at study entry.
Significant findings of the study show that regarding the FRS score, light and moderate drinkers had the lowest prevalence of high CVD risk. The odds of high ASCVD risk was significantly lower for light and at-risk drinkers compared to very light drinkers. Odds of high FRS risk were significantly lower for light and moderate drinkers than very light drinkers in all models. The odds of having a high MetS Severity score was significantly lower for light and moderate groups compared to the very light drinking group in all models. MetS Severity scores were lower among light, moderate, and at-risk drinkers for those who preferred beer, wine, and hard liquor.
Data findings show evidence for potential protective associations of light and moderate alcohol consumption compared to very light drinking based on results of the three composite CVD risk scores. Adjustments for a variety of confounding factors further strengthened this association. Future research should continue to assess the effects a variety of alcohol types and amounts on cardiovascular health. Study limitations include the use of an all-male, limited racial and ethnic study sample and the lack of adjustments for sugar consumption and patterns of alcohol use.
Source: McEvoy, Linda K., Jaclyn Bergstrom, Xinming Tu, Alexis C. Garduno, Kevin M. Cummins, Carol E. Franz, Michael J. Lyons et al. “Moderate Alcohol Use Is Associated with Reduced Cardiovascular Risk in Middle-Aged Men Independent of Health, Behavior, Psychosocial, and Earlier Life Factors.” Nutrients 14, no. 11 (2022): 2183.
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
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Posted August 17, 2022.
Taylor Woosley studied biology at Purdue University before becoming a 2016 graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a major in Writing. She currently resides in Glen Ellyn, IL.
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