One Daily Drink May Reduce Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death in Women

Women who consume up to one drink per day may reduce their risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) by 36 percent, according to an Oct. 1 HealthDay News report. Conversely, those who consume more than two drinks per day may have a 15 percent increased risk of SCD.

The findings were based on data from the Nurses' Health Study, a decades-long investigation of factors affecting women's health that began in 1976. More than 85,000 participants who were disease-free when the study began provided alcohol-consumption data every four years as part of the study.

Researchers found a U-shaped association between alcohol intake and SCD risk; that is, women who drank one-half to two drinks a day had a lower risk of SCD than abstainers, but drinking any quantity beyond that reversed the trend and upped the SCD risk.

Contrary to some studies that showed a cardiac benefit only for wine, this study showed an effect across alcoholic-beverage types (beer, wine, or spirits).

“For women who choose to drink alcohol, they should have about one drink a day,” said Dr. Stephanie Chiuve of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study. “That's where we saw the greatest benefit.”

The study was published in the October issue of the journal Heart Rhythm.