Coronary heart disease is the third leading cause of death globally, with cisgender women at a higher risk. A recent study shows a woman’s risk of developing heart disease may increase depending on the amount of alcohol consumed. The findings suggest that women who binge drink have a 68% higher risk of developing heart disease compared to a 33% increased risk for men
Some versions have you fast on alternate days. Some versions call for fasting during waking hours, others incorporate sleeping hours into the fasting period. It requires a substantial period of not eating — going without food for a couple of hours won’t do it.According to researchers, coronary heart disease is currently the third leading cause of deathTrusted Source in the world and is linked to 17.8 million deaths each year
According to Dr. Jamal Rana, a cardiologist with The Permanente Medical Group, an adjunct investigator in the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, and the lead author of this study, more awareness is needed on how alcohol can affect heart health
“I think a lot more awareness is needed that alcohol use can be a factor in heart disease risk and that asking about alcohol use should be part of routine health assessments moving forward. At Kaiser Permanente Northern California, alcohol use is considered a vital sign, and we ask about it and record the response at every medical appointment, the same way we record someone’s blood pressure.”
For this study, Dr. Rana and his team analyzed alcohol use data from more than 430,000 people who received care at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Study participants ranged in age from 18 to 65 and had no prior heart disease at the start of the study. Participants were placed in three alcohol intake levels — low (one to two drinks per week for both men and women), moderate (three to 14 drinks per week for men and three to seven drinks for women), and high (15 or more drinks per week for men and eight or more drinks per week for women)
Additionally, researchers categorized study participants by whether they engaged in binge drinking or not. Those who participated in binge drinking had five or more drinks per day in the past three months for men and four or more drinks per day in the past three months for women. Scientists compared the relationship between alcohol intake levels reported by participants to coronary heart disease diagnoses received during the four years after
Upon analysis, the researchers found that women who did not binge drink but reported high alcohol intake had a 45% increased chance of developing heart disease compared to female participants who reported moderate alcohol intake. Scientists also discovered that women who fit the binge drinking category increased their heart disease risk by 68%. “These findings suggest that we need to be educating women about potential heart risks associated with binge drinking,” Dr. Rana said. “Our findings also underscore how important it is for healthcare providers to ask women not only how often they drink but if they binge drink.
The study also found that male participants with high alcohol intake had a 15% higher risk of heart disease compared to those reporting moderate alcohol intake. Males with a high alcohol intake who also met the criteria for binge drinking had a 33% increased risk of heart disease. The study also found that male participants with high alcohol intake and met the binge drinking category heightened their heart disease risk by 33% compared to those reporting moderate alcohol intake.