NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM Alcohol and Coronary Heart Disease

Heart attacks and other forms of coronary heart disease (CHD) result in approximately 500,000 deaths annually (1), accounting for 25 percent of the Nation’s total mortality (2). Research has revealed an association between moderate alcohol consumption1 and lower risk for CHD. This Alcohol Alert reviews epidemiologic evidence for this association, explores lifestyle factors and physiological mechanisms that might suggest ways to explain alcohol’s apparent protective effects, and presents available data on the balance between alcohol’s beneficial and harmful effects on health. Epidemiologic Evidence With few exceptions, epidemiologic data from at least 20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia demonstrate a 20- to 40-percent lower CHD incidence among drinkers compared with nondrinkers (3,4). Moderate drinkers exhibit lower rates of CHD-related mortality than both heavy drinkers and abstainers (3,4). Such studies range from comparisons of nationwide population data to retrospective analyses of health and drinking patterns within communities. The most persuasive epidemiologic evidence for alcohol’s possible protective effects on CH