|
 The research, which used data from a 160,000-strong cohort of
Chinese adults, many of whom are unable to drink alcohol due to
genetic intolerance, found that people who drink moderately -
consuming 10 to 20 grams of alcohol a day - raise their risk of
stroke by 10 to 15 percent.
For heavy drinkers, consuming four or more drinks a day, blood
pressure rises significantly and the risk of stroke increases by
around 35 percent, the study found.
"The key message here is that, at least for stroke, there is no
protective effect of moderate drinking," said Zhengming Chen, a
professor at Oxford University's Nuffield Department of Population
Health who co-led the research. "The genetic evidence shows the
protective effect is not real."
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 2.3
billion people worldwide drink alcohol, with average per person
daily consumption at 33 grams of pure alcohol a day. That is roughly
equivalent to two 150 ml glasses of wine, a large (750 ml) bottle of
beer or two 40 ml shots of spirits.
This latest study, published in The Lancet medical journal, focused
on people of East Asian descent, many of whom have genetic variants
that limit alcohol tolerance.
Because the variants have specific and large effects on alcohol, but
do not effect other lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking,
economic status or education, they can be used by scientists to nail
down causal effects of alcohol intake.
[to top of second column] |
"Using genetics is a novel way ... to sort out whether moderate
drinking really is protective, or whether it's slightly harmful,"
said Iona Millwood, an epidemiologist at Oxford who co-led the
study. "Our genetic analyses have helped us understand the
cause-and-effect relationships."
The research team - including scientists from Oxford and Peking
universities and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said it
would be impossible to do a study of this kind in Western
populations, since almost no-one there has the relevant
alcohol-intolerance gene variants.
But the findings about the biological effects of alcohol should be
the same for all people worldwide, they said.
Europe has the highest per person alcohol consumption in the world,
even though it has dropped by around 10 percent since 2010, the WHO
says, and current trends point to a global rise in per capita
consumption in the next 10 years.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
