Vitamin A supplements for children could save 600,000 lives a year

Vitamin A supplements for children could save 600,000 lives a year

Children in low and middle income countries should be given vitamin A supplements to prevent death and illness, concludes a study published in the BMJ

The researchers argue that the effectiveness of vitamin A supplementation is now so well-established that further trials would be unethical, and they urge policymakers to provide supplements for all children at risk of deficiency.

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient that must be obtained through diet. Vitamin A deficiency in children increases vulnerability to infections like diarrhoea and measles and may also lead to blindness. Globally, the World Health Organisation estimates that 190 million children under the age of 5 may be vitamin A deficient. But, despite widespread efforts, vitamin A programmes do not reach all children who could benefit.

So a team of researchers based in the UK and Pakistan analysed the results of 43 trials of vitamin A supplementation involving over 200,000 children aged 6 months to 5 years. Differences in study design and quality were taken into account to minimise bias.

They found vitamin A supplements reduced child mortality by 24% in low and middle income countries. It may also reduce mortality and disability by preventing measles, diarrhoea and vision problems, including night blindness.

The authors say that, if the risk of death for 190 million vitamin A deficient children were reduced by 24%, over 600,000 lives would be saved each year and 20 million disability-adjusted life years (a measure of quantity and quality of life) would be gained.

Based on these results, the authors strongly recommend supplementation for children under 5 in areas at risk of vitamin A deficiency. They conclude: "The evidence for vitamin A is compelling and clear. Further trials comparing vitamin A with placebo would be unethical."

This view is supported in an accompanying editorial by two experts at Harvard School of Public Health, who say "effort should now focus on finding ways to sustain this important child survival initiative and fine tune it to maximise the number of lives saved

 E. Mayo-Wilson, A. Imdad, K. Herzer, M. Y. Yakoob, Z. A. Bhutta. Vitamin A supplements for preventing mortality, illness, and blindness in children aged under 5: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, 2011; 343 (aug25 1)

Chromium May Cut Carb Craving in Depression

Depression Health Center

Chromium May Cut Carb Craving in Depression

Could Also Cut Risk of Diabetes, Researchers Say

A popular nutritional supplement may reduce serious carb cravings in people with depression.

The supplement is chromium picolinate. The new finding comes from a small clinical trial sponsored by Nutrition 21, which years ago purchased the patent rights to chromium picolinate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

John P. Docherty, MD, president of Comprehensive Neuroscience Inc., White Plains, N.Y., and adjunct professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, penned the report. Docherty presented the findings at the National Institute of Mental Health's annual New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit Conference, held this week in Phoenix.

"It is an exciting finding," Docherty tells WebMD. "The real benefit of this is the high rate of response in this subgroup of depressed patients. If this finding holds up, it is a very important finding for depression. And there was a very, very favorable side effect profile."

Chromium Picolinate's Effects on Metabolism

Chromium picolinate is a nutritional supplement. The "picolinate" part of the compound is thought to enhance the body's ability to absorb chromium. Chromium is a necessary mineral. The typical Western diet barely contains an adequate amount of chromium -- so chromium supplements are quite popular. It's the second most popular mineral supplement in the U.S.

All kinds of claims have been made about chromium picolinate. Few of them are proven. One known effect is the supplement's ability to increase the body's sensitivity to insulin, helping it work better to control blood sugars. It's not clear whether the supplement provides significant help to people with diabetes. A recent analysis of well-designed studies showed that it does not significantly affect blood sugar or insulin levels in people who do not have diabetes.

Depression, Diabetes, and Carb Craving

Docherty notes that there is a connection between diabetes and depression. People with depression, he says, are twice as likely to get diabetes. What's the link?

The most common form of depression, ironically, is called atypical depression. Instead of losing their appetite, people with atypical depression often overeat. Many of these people report an almost irresistible craving for carbs.

Docherty's study enrolled 113 people with atypical depression. Two-thirds took chromium picolinate supplements for eight weeks, and one-third got a placebo.

Depression, Diabetes, and Carb Craving continued...

When the researchers looked at all the patients -- those with and without carb cravings -- they found no overall depression benefit from the chromium supplement compared to placebo. It did, however, cut carb craving.

But chromium did improve depression in certain patients. Researchers found that atypical depression patients who also had carb cravings improved with chromium compared to placebo.

"In that group with high carb craving -- a third of the patients -- we had a very significant benefit from chromium picolinate," Docherty says. "Compared with placebo, it had a 2-to-1 advantage in reducing depression overall."

Maybe, Docherty speculates, this small study has found the missing link between depression and diabetes.

"This could turn out to be a very big benefit if the relationship between depression and diabetes is mediated by carb craving," he says. "It might be that if you eat more carbs, you tax your insulin system more and are at greater risk for diabetes. This treatment chromium picolinate may lower high risk of diabetes in people with depression. That would be terrific."

Chromium Picolinate for Carb Craving?

It is not clear that chromium picolinate -- or anything else -- can help normal people eat fewer carbs, says Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She is also a nutritional consultant for several sports teams and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

"What is carb craving? It would be really difficult to define that," Bonci tells WebMD. "Yes, there are some people who are going to gear more toward the pasta and potatoes than steak and tofu, but that doesn't have a clinical definition. ... It would be a stretch to say that across the board, carb cravers should go with chromium. Bodies aren't that smart. Psychological and environmental factors do a lot more to determine the cravings we have."

On the other hand, Bonci says, the findings regarding insulin sensitivity and chromium picolinate are "exciting." Moreover, she explains, many people do get too little chromium in their diets.

Huge exposures to chromium can be dangerous. But Bonci notes that people who take chromium supplements don't get harmful side effects.

By Daniel J. DeNoon

SOURCES: Docherty, J.P. Poster presentation, 44th Annual Meeting of the New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit, Phoenix, June 1-4, 2004. John P. Docherty, MD, president, Comprehensive Neuroscience Inc., White Plains, N.Y.; and adjunct professor of psychiatry, Cornell University. Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director, sports nutrition, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Vitamin B3 could be the fountain of youth

A global increase in antioxidant defences of the body may delay ageing and age-related diseases

The paper, published today in the journal ‘Nature Communications’, offers a new view on the role of antioxidants in health and longevity

For the first time, scientists have enhanced the global antioxidant capacity of cells, leading to a delay in ageing and to an increase in longevity

Research points to the use of drugs related to vitamin B3 as a possible method to delay ageing and associated diseases

The gradual accumulation of cell damage plays a very important role in the origin of ageing. There are many sources of cellular damage, however, which ones are really responsible for ageing and which ones are inconsequential for ageing is a question that still lacks an answer.

The Oxidative Hypothesis of Ageing — also known as the Free Radicals Hypothesis — was put forward in 1956 by Denham Harman. Since then, the large majority of attempts to prove that oxidative damage is relevant for ageing have failed, including multiple clinical trials in humans with antioxidant compounds. For this reason, although the accumulation of oxidative damage with ageing is undisputed, most scientists believe that it is a minor, almost irrelevant, cause of ageing.

However, this may change in light of the recently published observations. A group of scientists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) headed by Manuel Serrano, in collaboration with a group from the University of Valencia, directed by José Viña, and researchers at IMDEA Food from Madrid, have tried to increase the global antioxidant capacity of the cells, rather than just one or a few antioxidant enzymes. To achieve this global improvement in the total antioxidant capacity, researches have focused on increasing the levels of NADPH, a relatively simple molecule that is of key importance in antioxidant reactions and that, however, had not been studied to date in relation to ageing.

The researchers used a genetic approach to increase NADPH levels. In particular, they generated transgenic mice with an increased expression throughout their bodies of one of the most important enzymes for the production of NADPH, namely, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (or G6PD).

The results, published today in the journal Nature Communications, indicate that an increase in G6PD and, therefore, in NADPH, increases the natural antioxidant defences of the organism, protecting it from oxidative damage, reducing ageing-related processes, such as insulin resistance, and increasing longevity. 

ANTIOXIDANTS THAT DELAY AGEING

"As anticipated, the cells in these transgenic animals are more resistant to highly toxic artificial oxidative treatments, thus proving that an increase in G6PD really improves antioxidant defences," explains Sandrina Nóbrega-Pereira, first author of the study and currently a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Medicine of the University of Lisbon.

Furthermore, when researchers analysed long-lived transgenic animals, they noted that their levels of oxidative damage were lower than in non-transgenic animals of the same age. They also studied the propensity of these animals to develop cancer and found no difference, suggesting that enhancing G6PD activity does not have an important effect on the development of cancer.

The greatest surprise for the team was when they measured the ageing process in the transgenic mice: the animals with a high G6PD expression and, therefore, high levels of NADPH, delayed their ageing, metabolised sugar better and presented better movement coordination as they aged. In addition, transgenic females lived 14% longer than non-transgenic mice, while no significant effect on the longevity of males was observed.

"This increased longevity, although modest, is striking taking into account that until now attempts to increase longevity by manipulating individual antioxidant enzymes had failed," said Pablo Fernández-Marcos, co-first author of the study and researcher at IMDEA Food.

OVERALL INCREASE IN THE ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY OF CELLS

Perhaps the key is that the researchers involved in this paper enhanced all antioxidant enzymes in a comprehensive manner. "Compared to the traditional approach of administering antioxidants that react directly with oxygen, we have stimulated all the cell’s natural antioxidant mechanisms by raising G6PD levels, and its by-product, NADPH," emphasizes Mari Carmen Gómez-Cabrera, co-author of the paper and researcher at the University of Valencia.

Based on these results, the authors of the study point to the use of pharmacological agents or nutritional supplements that increase NADPH levels as potential tools for delaying the ageing process in humans and age-related diseases, such as diabetes, among others. More specifically, vitamin B3 and its derivatives are responsible for the synthesis of NADPH precursors and are suitable candidates for future studies.

The study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competition, the Community of Madrid, the European Research Council, the Botín Foundation and Banco Santander through Santander Universities, the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC), the Ramón Areces Foundation, the AXA Foundation, the Spanish Ageing and Fragility Network RETICEF, and the European Regional Development Fund.

Reference article:

G6PD protects from oxidative damage and improves healthspan in mice. Sandrina Nóbrega-Pereira, Pablo J. Fernandez-Marcos, Thomas Brioche, Mari Carmen Gomez-Cabrera, Andrea Salvador-Pascual, Juana M. Flores, Jose Viña, Manuel Serrano. Nature Communications (2016). doi: 10.1038/ncomms10894

Triclosan: Is this Hazardous Chemical in Your Toothpaste?

Is This Common Ingredient Throwing Off Your Hormones?

If you have ever used a product that claims to fight odor or kill germs, you have most likely been exposed to the chemical triclosan.

Triclosan is the active ingredient in a wide range of antimicrobial products. From soap and toothpaste to cutting boards, socks, and yoga mats—triclosan acts as an antiseptic that keeps you and your surfaces clean. The problem is that triclosan is absorbed through the skin, showing up later in both breast milk and urine.

antibacterial

An active ingredient in antimicrobial products called triclosan can absorb directly into your skin. Triclosan absorption can impact hormones, fertility, and breast cancer risk.

Some studies assert that triclosan found in toiletries and cosmetics may pose the highest risk of absorption. (1)(2)

This past December, the FDA announced that it is now formally reconsidering its stance on antibacterial soaps that contain triclosan. According to Colleen Rogers, Ph.D. and lead microbiologist at the FDA, there currently is no evidence that antibacterial soaps are more effective than plain soap and water. (3)

She explains, "New data suggest that the risks associated with long-term, daily use of antibacterial soaps may outweigh the benefits."

THE RISKS OF TRICLOSAN

What does triclosan do in your body? It largely affects your reproductive and hormonal systems.

Research shows that triclosan:

Interferes With Hormones: Specifically—estrogen, androgen, and thyroid hormones. In animal studies, triclosan has been proven to reduce levels of thyroid hormones. (4)(5) Thyroid hormones keep your metabolic fires stoked, making them essential to a strong immune system and a healthy pregnancy.

Increases the Risk of Breast Cancer: The estrogenic nature of triclosan allows it to bind to hormone receptors that are meant for estrogen. And because triclosan can bind to estrogen receptors, research shows that it may stimulate the growth of estrogen-dependant breast cancer. (6)

Reduces Fertility: In men, triclosan may interfere with the production of sperm. It can also affect sperm health and testicular health. (7)

Triclosan contributes to the problem of antibiotic resistance, which is becoming more common (and deadly) with each passing year. (8)(9)

Because triclosan doesn’t just stay on the surface of your skin, its antiseptic qualities penetrate into the body. This means that the microbes living inside your body also come into contact with triclosan.

One study published by a team of researchers at Stanford University found that you are more likely to carry extra weight with repeated exposure to triclosan. (10) As the researchers explain, triclosan “has the potential to alter both gut microbiota and endocrine function and thereby affect body weight.”

Watch out for allergies too. Recent research published in partnership with the CDC found that high levels of triclosan in children were associated with respiratory allergies. (11)

7 WAYS TO AVOID TRICLOSAN

The new regulations on triclosan only affect soaps and body wash, requiring that manufacturers first demonstrate the safety of the chemical before including it in their product.

But what can you do about all the other products in your home that may contain triclosan?

Product labels: While reading labels will help you to avoid triclosan, some products that contain triclosan are not clearly labeled. Other names for triclosan include Microban, Irgasan, Biofresh, Lexol-300, Ster-Zac, and Cloxifenolum.\

Bar, liquid, and foaming soaps: Choose to wash with handmade soaps or castile soap. Only buy soaps from manufacturers that list ingredients you can understand.

Underarm deodorants: Homemade deodorants—using coconut oil, baking soda, and essential oils—may work for you. Also, consider giving magnesium oil a try. Magnesium oil under the arms will control odor.

Toothpaste and mouthwash: A simple rinse with baking soda and essential oils is a natural and gentle antiseptic.

Laundry detergents and fabric softeners: Luckily, there are now several natural products on the market that safely clean your clothes. If you are adventurous, you can try soap nuts, which are 100% natural and reusable. For the dryer, wool dryer balls will leave clothes fluffy and static-free.

Baby toys: Believe it or not, some baby toys contain triclosan. (12)(13) The worst offenders are plastic toys. If you have the option, choose toys made from natural materials, like wood.

In the kitchen: While “antimicrobial” plastic surfaces may sound clean and enticing, antimicrobial kitchenware often contains triclosan. Instead, opt for natural utensils and natural surfaces—such as wooden spoons and cutting boards, glass or enamelware, and stainless steel storage containers. And when you need to clean a surface? A little castile soap or apple cider vinegar in water will do the trick. If you're worried about bacteria, add a few drops of lemon or rosemary essential oil for good measure.

What To Remember Most About This Article:

Triclosan is the active ingredient found in numerous antimicrobial products, including soaps, toothpastes, and cutting boards. Unfortunately, triclosan is absorbed into the skin. Antimicrobial soaps containing triclosan have not been proven any more effective at cleaning than soap and water.

Triclosan is a risky ingredient that has a great effect on the body to:

Interfere with hormones.

Increase the risk of breast cancer.

Reduce male fertility.

What's more, triclosan can also contribute to antibiotic resistance—a potentially deadly epidemic sweeping the nation. Research shows that triclosan affects the healthy microbes in your body and can cause weight gain, as well as respiratory allergies in children.

You can rid your home of this harmful ingredient by reading product labels carefully and choosing safer alternatives to soap, deodorant, toothpaste, mouthwash, baby toys, and antimicrobial kitchen surfaces.

REFERENCES:

Allmyr, M., Adolfsson-Erici, M., McLachlan, M. S., & Sandborgh-Englund, G. (2006). Triclosan in plasma and milk from Swedish nursing mothers and their exposure via personal care products. Science of the Total environment, 372(1), 87-93.

Calafat, A. M., Ye, X., Wong, L. Y., Reidy, J. A., & Needham, L. L. (2008). Urinary concentrations of triclosan in the US population: 2003–2004. Environmental Health Perspectives, 116(3), 303.

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm378393.htm

Zorrilla, L. M., Gibson, E. K., Jeffay, S. C., Crofton, K. M., Setzer, W. R., Cooper, R. L., & Stoker, T. E. (2009). The effects of triclosan on puberty and thyroid hormones in male Wistar rats. Toxicological Sciences, 107(1), 56-64.

Crofton, K. M., Paul, K. B., DeVito, M. J., & Hedge, J. M. (2007). Short-term in vivo exposure to the water contaminant triclosan: Evidence for disruption of thyroxine. Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 24(2), 194-197.

Lee, H., Park, M., Yi, B., & Choi, K. (2012). Octylphenol and triclosan induced proliferation of human breast cancer cells via an estrogen receptor-mediated signaling in vitro.

Lan, Z., Hyung Kim, T., Shun Bi, K., Hui Chen, X., & Sik Kim, H. (2013). Triclosan exhibits a tendency to accumulate in the epididymis and shows sperm toxicity in male sprague‐dawley rats. Environmental toxicology.

Middleton, J. H., & Salierno, J. D. (2012). Antibiotic resistance in triclosan tolerant fecal coliforms isolated from surface waters near wastewater treatment plant outflows (Morris County, NJ, USA). Ecotoxicology and environmental safety.

Bush, K., Courvalin, P., Dantas, G., Davies, J., Eisenstein, B., Huovinen, P., ... & Zgurskaya, H. I. (2011). Tackling antibiotic resistance. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 9(12), 894-896.

Lankester, J., Patel, C., Cullen, M. R., Ley, C., & Parsonnet, J. (2013). Urinary Triclosan is Associated with Elevated Body Mass Index in NHANES. PloS one, 8(11), e80057.

Bertelsen, R. J., Longnecker, M. P., Løvik, M., Calafat, A. M., Carlsen, K. H., London, S. J., & Lødrup Carlsen, K. C. (2013). Triclosan exposure and allergic sensitization in Norwegian children. Allergy, 68(1), 84-91.

Glaser, A. (2004). The ubiquitous triclosan. A common antibacterial agent exposed. Pesticides and You, 24, 12-17.

Bedoux, G., Roig, B., Thomas, O., Dupont, V., & Le Bot, B. (2012). Occurrence and toxicity of antimicrobial triclosan and by-products in the environment. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 19(4), 1044-1065.

Omega-3 fatty acids may lower the risk of breast cancer

Omega-3 fatty acids may lower the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal obese women, according to researchers.

The protection likely comes from the fatty acids' anti-inflammatory effects, said Dr. Andrea Manni, professor and division chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, Penn State College of Medicine.

Obesity is a major breast cancer risk factor in postmenopausal women, and scientists believe increased inflammation is an important underlying cause in this population.

"Omega-3 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect, so that's one of the reasons why we suspected it may be particularly effective in obese women," Manni said.

Some epidemiological data supports the idea that omega-3s protect against breast cancer, but the findings have been inconsistent. Manni suspected that data from normal-weight women obscured the results.

Normal-weight women have less inflammation than heavier women, and are therefore less likely to benefit from anti-inflammatory omega-3s, he said.

To tease apart the effects, Manni's team, working alongside researchers from Emory University and Colorado State University, looked at the influence of prescription omega-3 supplementation on breast density in different weight women. Breast density is a well-established biomarker for breast cancer risk, and may be an independent risk factor, as well.

"The higher the breast density, the more likely the woman will develop breast cancer," Manni said.

The study included 266 healthy postmenopausal women with high breast density detected by routine mammograms. The women either received no treatment, the antiestrogen drug Raloxifene, the prescription omega-3 drug Lovaza or a combination of the two drugs.

At the conclusion of the two-year study, the researchers found that increasing levels of omega-3 in the blood were associated with reduced breast density -- but only in women with a body mass index above 29, bordering on obesity.

Although Lovaza contains both of the fatty acids DHA -- 375 milligrams -- and EPA -- 465 milligrams, only DHA blood levels were associated with breast density reduction. The researchers plan to test the effect of DHA alone in obese subjects, potentially in combination with weight loss, in a future trial.

"The finding supports the idea that omega-3s, and specifically DHA, are preferentially protective in obese postmenopausal women," Manni said. "This represents an example of a personalized approach to breast cancer prevention."

These findings may help to support future research looking at the direct effect of omega-3 supplementation on breast cancer incidence in obese women.

Manni added that, with obesity-related cancers on the rise, the findings could have implications beyond breast cancer.

The researchers also made a secondary discovery. Lovaza is an omega-3 drug FDA-approved for the treatment of severe high triglycerides at the dose of 4 milligrams daily. In the current study, the combination of Lovaza and a half recommended dose of Raloxifene at 30 milligrams, was superior to the individual treatments in reducing triglycerides and LDL -- "bad" -- cholesterol and increasing HDL -- "good" -- cholesterol.

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Story Source:

http://news.psu.edu/story/394565/2016/02/24/research/omega-3-fatty-acids-may-lower-breast-cancer-risk-postmenopausal

Join a club you could live longer

Membership of social groups, such as book clubs or church groups, after retirement is linked to a longer life, with the impact on health and wellbeing similar to that of regular exercise, suggests research published in the online journal BMJ Open.

The more groups an individual belongs to in the first few years after s/he stops working, the lower their risk of death, the findings show.

Retirement represents a major life change, with the evidence from large long-term studies suggesting that the health and wellbeing of a substantial number of retirees goes downhill after they stop formal work.

But some people adjust to this transition better than others. In a bid to assess the potential impact of social group memberships, the researchers tracked the health of 424 people for six years after they had retired.

They were compared with the same number of people, matched for age, sex, and health status, but who were still working.

All the participants were at least 50 years old, living in England, and taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which started in 2002-3.

Each participant was asked how many different organisations, clubs, or societies, s/he belonged to, and which ones. They were also asked to complete a validated scale to assess quality of life, and another, to assess subjective physical health.

The results showed that individuals whose quality of life was good before retirement were more likely to score highly on quality of life assessment after retirement.

But membership of social groups was also associated with quality of life. Compared with those still working, every group membership lost after retirement was associated with around a 10% drop in quality of life score six years later.

Some 28 (6.65%) of the retirees died in the first six years after stopping work. Unsurprisingly, the strongest predictor of death was age, with someone at the age of 55 running a 1% risk of dying compared with an 8% chance for someone aged 65.

Subjectively rated health was not a significant predictor of death, but the number of group memberships was.

If a person belonged to two groups before retirement, and kept these up over the following six years, their risk of death was 2%, rising to 5% if they gave up membership of one, and to 12% if they gave up membership of both.

No such patterns were seen for those still in formal employment.

The researchers separately assessed whether changes in physical activity levels affected risk of death and compared this with the magnitude of the effect of social group membership.

They found that if a person exercised vigorously once a week before retirement, and kept up this frequency afterwards, their chance of dying over the next six years was 3%, rising to 6% if they reduced the frequency to less than once a week, and to 11% if they stopped altogether.

Among those who were still working, the equivalent figures were 3%, 5%, and 8%.

"Accordingly, we can see that the effects of physical activity on health were comparable to those associated with maintaining old group memberships and developing new ones," write the researchers.

This is an observational study so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, but the findings have unique practical implications for retirement planning, say the researchers.

"They suggest that as much as practitioners may help retirees adjust by providing support with financial planning, they may also help by providing social planning," they write.

"In this regard, practical interventions should focus on helping retirees to maintain their sense of purpose and belonging by assisting them to connect to groups and communities that are meaningful to them," they conclude.

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Story Source: BMJ. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Niklas K Steffens, Tegan Cruwys, Catherine Haslam, Jolanda Jetten, S Alexander Haslam. Social group memberships in retirement are associated with reduced risk of premature death: evidence from a longitudinal cohort study. BMJ Open, February 2016 DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010164

Fewer heart problems in people who drink

Fewer heart problems in people who drink moderately but often

People who drink wine, liquor or beer regularly are less prone to heart failure and heart attacks than those who rarely or never drink. Three to five drinks a week can be good for your heart.

By Anne Sliper Midling

Published 18.02.16

“It’s primarily the alcohol that leads to more good cholesterol, among other things. But alcohol can also cause higher blood pressure. So it’s best to drink moderate amounts relatively often,” he says.

Cheers! More good cholesterol thanks to the alcohol in your drink = good for the heart. Photo: Thinkstock

Decreased risk with each additional serving

Along with a number of colleagues from NTNU and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Janszky has published two studies regarding the relationship between alcohol and heart health. One, published in the Journal of Cardiology, is about heart failure. The second is on acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and has been published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

In both cases, research shows that people who regularly drink alcohol have better cardiovascular health than those who consume little or no alcohol. Unikard, a Norwegian organization that focuses on cardiovascular research, is also discussing these findings.

The studies showed that those who drank three to five drinks per week were 33 per cent less prone to heart failure than those who abstained or drank infrequently. In the case of heart attacks, the risk appears to be reduced by 28 percent with each additional one-drink increment.

This does not surprise the researchers at all.

A majority of researchers worldwide seem to think three to five drinks a week can be good for your heart.

Different drinking patterns

“The relationship between alcohol and heart health has been studied in many countries, including the USA and southern European nations. The conclusions have been the same, but the drinking patterns in these countries are very different than in Norway. In countries like France and Italy, very few people don’t drink,” says Janszky. “It raises the question as to whether earlier findings can be fully trusted, if other factors related to non-drinkers might have influenced research results. It may be that these are people who previously had alcohol problems, and who have stopped drinking completely,” he says.

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For this reason, the researchers wanted to examine the theory with a Norwegian population where a significant population drinks rarely or not at all. In the myocardial infarction study, 41 per cent of participants reported that they did not drink at all or that they consumed less than half of one alcoholic beverage per week.

Both studies are based on the longitudinal HUNT 2 Nord-Trøndelag Health Study conducted between 1995 and 1997.

The greater the drinking frequency, the lower the risk

The study, which looked at the relationship between heart failure and alcohol, followed 60,665 participants until the end of 2008 with no incidence of heart failure. Of those, 1588 of them developed heart failure during the period of the study. The risk was highest for those who rarely or never drank alcohol, and for those who had an alcohol problem.

The more often participants consumed alcohol within normal amounts, the lower their risk of heart failure turned out to be. Those who drank five or more times a month had a 21 per cent lower risk compared to non-drinkers and those who drank little, while those who drank between one and five times a month had a two per cent lower risk.

• You might also like: Mirror, mirror, will I have a heart attack?

Drinking isn’t necessary for a healthy heart

“I’m not encouraging people to drink alcohol all the time. We’ve only been studying the heart, and it’s important to emphasize that a little alcohol every day can be healthy for the heart. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessary to drink alcohol every day to have a healthy heart,” says Janszky.

In the heart attack study, 58,827 participants were categorized by how much and how often they drank. 2966 of the participants experienced an acute myocardial infarction between 1995 and the end of 2008. The adjusted analyses showed that each additional one-drink increment decreased the risk of AMI by 28 percent.

Alcohol may increase other problems

The researchers stressed that few participants in the study drank particularly much, so they cannot conclude that high alcohol intake protects against heart attack or heart failure. They also encourage looking at the findings in a larger context, since the risk of a number of other diseases and social problems can increase as a result of higher alcohol consumption.

For example, the researchers observed that the risk of dying from various types of cardiovascular disease increased with about five drinks a week and up, while those who drank more moderate amounts had the lowest risk. High alcohol consumption was also strongly associated with an increased risk of death from liver disease.

References:

Katalin Gémes, Imre Janszky, Staffan Ahnve, Krisztina D. László, Lars E. Laugsand,Lars J. Vatten, Kenneth J. Mukamale. Light-to-moderate drinking and incident heart failure — the Norwegian HUNT study. International Journal of Cardiology. Vol. 203, 15 January 2016, Pages 553–560.doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2015.10.179

K. Gémes, I. Janszky, L. E. Laugsand, K. D. László, S. Ahnve, L. J. Vatten and K. J. Mukama.Alcohol consumption is associated with a lower incidence of acute myocardial infarction: results from a large prospective population-based study in Norway Journal of Internal Medicine, early online edition. 14 September 2015. DOI: 10.1111/joim.12428