Moderate wine drinkers with lower risk of ischemic stroke
Stroke is considered the second leading cause of death and the most common cause of disability worldwide. A large number of epidemiologic studies have investigated the relationship between drinking patterns of alcoholic beverages and ischemic stroke, yielding different conclusions.
The current systematic review and meta-analysis is considered the largest and most updated meta-analysis that included over 21 million participants from 122 studies and investigated the association between alcohol drinking pattern and ischemic stroke. The findings suggest that there is evidence for a significant association between the consumption of alcoholic beverages and risk of ischemic stroke, where:
- moderate consumption is linked to lower risk and
- heavy intake is associated with higher risk
These results varied by several variables including the type of alcohol beverage with a more protective effect among wine drinkers.
The authors concluded that their analysis provided strong and robust evidence for a significant association between moderate and heavy alcohol consumption with ischemic stroke risk. Their findings should encourage physicians to counsel their patients on the adverse impact of heavy alcohol intake and the importance of moderating their intake of alcoholic beverages.
