The results, which focused on more than 1,000 women and published in the American Journal of Cardiology , add to growing evidence that alcohol, regardless of beverage type , can be good for the heart. 'An interesting thing was that we did not see differences between different types of drinks, "said Joshua Rosenbloom, a student at Harvard Medical School who led the study.
"This latest evidence suggests that it is the alcohol itself that is beneficial '.
There was a similarly small risk of dying in the follow-up period if women drank wine, beer and strong alcoholic beverages , according to Rosenbloom and his colleagues concluded. 'A drink a day is a really good goal, assuming that a person can be disciplined about it, "said James O'Keefe, a cardiologist at the Health System St. Luke's in Kansas City, Missouri, who was not involved in the study.
The researchers examined more than 1,200 women hospitalized for a heart attack. They asked how many alcoholic drinks consumed regularly, along with other questions about health and lifestyles.
After at least 10 years of follow-up , the team discovered that 44 of every 100 women who were abstainers had died, while 25 out of 100 drinkers and 18 occasional drinkers out of 100 had died.
This resulted in a probability of approximately 35 percent lower risk of dying during the follow-up period for women who drank with respect to which they did not.
In a previous study that included men and women, O'Keefe found that people who continued to drink moderately after suffering a heart attack had better health than he was a teetotaler. 'It is not necessary to assume that people need to stop drinking once they develop heart disease, "he said.
"The problem is that alcohol is a slippery slope, and although we know that a little is good for us, much is really bad.
