Who Said Alcohol was "Healthy" Heart

There is bad news for those who thought consume alcohol in small amounts every day is not harmful to health, even to maintain heart health. Recent studies have shown the opposite.

The team from the University Gotherburg, Sweden, said that the benefits of "healthy" alcohol only appear if you have a particular genotype or genetic. Unfortunately, the chances of having the genotype is very small, estimated that only 15 percent of the population worldwide.

"Drinking alcohol in moderation does not have a strong protective effect. Or even to those having a particular genotype. However, the combination of these two factors will significantly reduce the risk of coronary heart disease," says Professor Lauren Lissner.

The researchers arrived at this conclusion after analyzing the genome and compare the drinking habits of the two groups of randomly-sampled. The first is 618 people with coronary heart disease, and the control group consisted of 2,921 people.

Both groups answered the questionnaire in detail what kind of alcohol like they like to drink, how often they drank and other lifestyle, and socioeconomic factors such as smoking, exercise habits, marital status and leisure activities.

Then the researchers analyzed the blood of both groups to search for CETP gene. This gene is known to regulate the transport of cholesterol from the liver to the peripheral arteries, which helps reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. A study from 1995 shows how the process was influenced (positively) by alcohol, but in subsequent studies have not been able to fully match the results of the initial study.

They found that only people with certain CETP gene variation has a strong relationship between low risk of coronary heart disease and a moderate amount of alcohol intake.

But, quite complicated to find out if we are among those who are lucky have CETP gene. May be necessary to test a simple way to know where we are in the category of genes.

"It was going to be useful to give advice to someone about healthy alcohol consumption," said Dag Thelle, one of the researchers.

This is the second study that shows the relationship between alcohol consumption, heart health and certain genotypes. The first study conducted in 1995 and concluded that alcohol consumption only provide a protective effect on the heart of a man who had a particular genotype.