The Evidence About Alcohol

They call it the French paradox. In France and other Mediterranean countries,  people dine on plenty of meat, butter, and cheese. Yet these people have the lowest death rates from coronary heart disease in the Western world. Why? Researchers point to the French habit of having a glass of wine with meals.

Research, primarily in people over age 50, reveals benefits in moderate drinking, as well as a few hazards beyond the risks inherent in alcohol abuse.

According to the Physicians' Health Study at Harvard Medical School -- an 11-year study of 22,071 male doctors, occasional or moderate drinking dramatically cuts the risk of several major life-threatening conditions, including:

• coronary disease
• high blood pressure
• ischemic stroke
• gallbladder disease
• peripheral vascular disease (PVD) or hardening of the arteries in the leg

The Harvard study found that men who had only two to four drinks a week had the lowest death from all causes and reduced their mortality from heart disease by 40 percent. Those who had up to six drinks a week lived longer than nondrinkers.

Not all the news is good, however. The Harvard study also showed that those who drank 14 or more drinks upped the cancer death rate by 63 percent over nondrinkers.

Women who come from families with a strong history of breast cancer (mother and/or sisters were diagnosed), may want to talk to their doctor about having a drink a day. Several studies have shown that more than two drinks a day may raise your risk of breast cancer.

Alcohol may also have an impact on postmenopausal women who take estrogen. A study in the December 1996 Journal of the American Medical Association reported that moderate drinking tripled hormone levels in women taking estrogen. Higher estrogen levels are associated with an increased risk for breast cancer.

But until more is known, the study's author, Dr. Elizabeth Ginsburg, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, says women on estrogen replacement should stay within a one-drink-a-day limit.