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The researchers’ statistical analysis showed an exponential risk curve with gene variants suggesting they drank more. The risks of heart disease and high blood pressure began slowly as the number of drinks increased, but quickly gained steam as people entered the range of 21 or more drinks per week.
The actual risks for an individual depend on whether the person has other conditions such as diabetes or obesity. However, Dr. Based on the results of the study, Aragam said that a typical middle-aged person who participated in the study and did not drink alcohol had an estimated 9 percent chance of developing coronary heart disease. A person who drank one drink a day had an estimated 10.5 percent chance, which is a small number. But after that, the risk increases rapidly.
Many previous studies on alcohol consumption and heart health were observational, meaning that subjects were followed over time to see if the amount of alcohol they were drinking was linked to heart health.
Such studies can only find correlations, but not causality, the researchers say. However, the Biobank study’s use of Mendelian randomization is more suggestive of causality, and therefore its results may carry more weight.
Dr. “We have to start thinking about these midranges and inform patients accordingly,” Aragam said. “If you choose to drink, you should know that beyond a certain level the risk is slightly increased. And if you choose to drink less, go to the seven-drink per week range, you’ll get the bulk of your benefit.
The study’s author and a cardiologist at Verve Therapeutics, Dr. Amit V. Khera said the gold standard for assessing the effects of drinking on the heart would of course be a large randomized clinical trial. such a studyIt was planned in 2017 by the National Institutes of Health to randomize high-risk people to one drink per day or abstinence. However, the researchers were terminated because they had inappropriate contacts with the alcohol industry while planning the study.
Dr. Mendelian randomization techniques are “particularly useful when a gold standard is not or cannot be made,” Khera said.
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