One Alcoholic Beverage a Day…Does it Really Keep Heart Disease at Bay?

It has been known that moderate alcoholic consumption which is about two drinks a day for men and one for woman is associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease. This was thought to be the case until a new study at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg in Sweden published in, Alcohol, specifically re-examined the association between alcohol consumption and coronary heart disease with the presence of a specific gene. This gene is known as cholesteryl ester transfer protein polymorphism (CETP). 

The study consisted of 618 participants; 453 men and 165 women below the age of 75. They were pulled from three regional hospitals admitted for acute coronary syndrome and diagnosed with myocardial infarction, with a typical history, ECG, and enzyme changes or unstable angina. First-time acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina was present in 209 men and 86 women, while the remaining 323 had an exacerbation of previously diagnosed coronary heart disease.

Questionnaires on environmental and lifestyle-related exposure variables were collected from study contributors and 2,921 healthy control subjects. All participants were asked about their intake of different types of alcoholic beverage and the serving size and frequency of consumption. Anthropometric measures and venous blood samples were also collected. Participants were tested in order to identify if the CETP TaqIB genotype was present and whether the participants carried the B1 or B2 alleles of this genotype.

Only 19% of participants were homozygous for the CETP TaqIB B2 allele. The result showed no dependency on gender and that the B2 genotype was associated with a lower coronary heart disease risk and that the group with intermediate alcohol intake had a lower risk than low intake. The results confirm that moderate alcohol helps protect against coronary heart disease for the percentage of people who have the genotype. It was concluded that neither moderate drinking or the genotype alone has any association with decreased risk but combined it appears to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease significantly.

The study hypothesizes two reasons as to how the CETP affects the "good" cardio-protective high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol that assists in the removal of excess lipids from the blood vessels. The first on is that alcohol by some means affects the CETP in a way that benefits HDL cholesterol and the second is that alcohol contains healthy, protective antioxidants.

The fact that the well-known knowledge of the benefits of alcohol consumption may not actually be applied to everyone is a very important discover in my opinion. I know that alcohol is a huge industry in the United States but it is important that people are not misled by its benefits. For those who do drink a glass a day for not only for pleasure but because they believe that it provides several benefits should be informed that those benefits may only occur under special conditions. This study provides the possibility to identify the CETP gene in people and recognize whether or not a person would benefit from regular alcohol consumption.