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Medical Video: Fact Check: Does Middle-aged Drinking Increase Stroke Risk?
Too much alcohol in middle age can increase your risk of stroke and also high blood pressure or diabetes, according to a study.
People who on average drink more than two glasses a day have a 34 percent higher risk of stroke compared to those who drink less than half of each day, according to findings published on January 29 in the journal Stroke.
The researchers also found that people who drank a lot of alcohol in their 50s and 60s tended to suffer strokes earlier in life than light drinkers or non-drinkers.
"Our research shows that drinking more than two drinks per day can shorten the time for strokes to be around five years," said lead author Pavla Kadlecova, a statistician at the International Clinical Research Center of St. University Hospital. Anne St. in the Czech Republic.
The risk of stroke caused by heavy drinkers rivals the risks posed by high blood pressure or diabetes, according to the researchers' conclusions. At the age of 75 years, blood pressure and diabetes are better indicators of stroke.
The study involved 11,644 Swedish middle-aged twin couples in an effort to examine the effect of genetics and lifestyle factors on stroke risk. Researchers analyzed the results of a single sex twin registry in Sweden that answered questionnaires between 1967 and 1970. In 2010, 43 years later, follow-up was carried out, including hospital records and data on causes of death.
Nearly 30 percent of participants had a stroke. They are categorized as light, moderate, heavy or non-drinkers based on questionnaires, and researchers compared the risks of alcohol and the risks of health such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking.
Researchers found that for heavy drinkers, alcohol causes a high risk of stroke at the end of middle age, starting at age 50. By comparison, light drinkers or non-drinkers, the risk of stroke will increase slowly with age.
Among identical twins, siblings who had strokes turned out to drink more than their siblings who did not have a stroke. This shows that drinking in middle age raises the risk of stroke regardless of genetics and lifestyle in youth, the researchers said.
