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(Circulation. 2005;112:3818-3819.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Importance of Pattern of Alcohol Consumption

R. Curtis Ellison, MD

From the Section of Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, Institute on Lifestyle & Health, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Mass.

Correspondence to R. Curtis Ellison, MD, Professor of Medicine & Public Health, Chief, Section of Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, Director, Institute on Lifestyle & Health, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118. E-mail ellison@bu.edu

Key Words: Editorials • alcohol • epidemiology • coronary disease

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Over the last several decades, prospective epidemiological studies have consistently shown that moderate alcohol consumers have a lower risk than abstainers of an initial myocardial infarction (MI)^1,2 or of recurrent cardiovascular disease.^3,4 Moderate alcohol intake has similarly been inversely associated with total mortality.^5–7 For developed nations, epidemiological studies estimate that a population with more moderate drinkers and fewer abstainers will have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and total mortality.^5,6,8 In fact, guidelines for sensible drinking developed in the United Kingdom suggest that "middle aged or elderly men and post-menopausal women who drink infrequently or not at all may wish to consider the possibility that light drinking might benefit their health."⁹ Still, the absence of a clinical trial for the effects of alcohol on cardiovascular disease and mortality forces us to use observational data and studies of the effects of alcohol on risk factors to make recommendations encouraging alcohol use, a condition some physicians remain reluctant to accept. In addition, the adverse health and societal effects of heavy or inappropriate drinking are well known to all.

Article p 3839

Most studies on alcohol and health have focused on the quantity of alcohol consumed. Few have attempted to assess the pattern of alcohol drinking in relation to cardiovascular disease. In this issue of Circulation, Mukamal and colleagues¹⁰ report that binge drinking (defined by them as the consumption of 3 or more drinks within 1 to 2 hours) completely negated the inverse association of alcohol intake with total mortality among post-MI subjects. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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