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Was Moderate Drinker And Stopped Drinking. Any Risk Of Heart Disease?

Posted on Wed, 20 Mar 2013

Question: I have seen that moderate alcohol use can lower risk of heart events by 30-50%. I was a moderate drinker for a long time, and now I have almost quit drinking. So logic would say that my heart problem risk has gone up?

Answered by Dr. E Venkata Ramana (2 hours later)

Hi,

Thank you for your query.

I shall understand your logic if there was only one risk factor of heart disease. As there are plenty of other factors, this logic has little relevance. But there are many risk factors for heart problems like hypertension, diabetes, smoking, hyperlipidemia, and family history.

Without taking of the above risk factors in to account, it is very difficult to attribute the amount of risk to a single factor.

Therefore though limited alcohol consumption may lower the risk for heart events, but in real, clinical practice the risk for heart problem is not significantly affected by you drinking alcohol in moderation.

Therefore, please do not consider restarting alcohol. Quitting alcohol is a good thing and I congratulate you for this. Keep it up!!

Hope I have answered your query, if you have any clarification please let me know.

Regards.

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad