A new study says drinking alcohol raises heart disease risk — especially for women

Research has linked higher levels of alcohol use to everything from cancer to liver disease, but the messaging around its impact on heart health has been unclear over the past few years. Now there’s new data to suggest that a regular drinking habit can raise the risk of developing heart disease. This appears to be especially true for women.

The study, which will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific session, analyzed data from more than 430,000 people without heart disease who received care in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California integrated health organization between 2014 and 2015. Information on participants’ alcohol consumption was collected during primary care visits, with researchers comparing that data to coronary heart disease diagnoses during a four-year follow-up period. (Coronary heart disease happens when the arteries that supply blood to the heart become narrowed, limiting blood flow. This can also raise the risk of chest pain and heart events, including a heart attack.)

During the study period, 3,108 participants were diagnosed with coronary heart disease, and the rates increased with higher levels of alcohol consumption. In women, those who had high alcohol intake (defined as eight or more drinks a week) had a 45% higher risk of heart disease compared with those who reported low intake (one to two drinks a week). Women who had high alcohol intake also had a 29% higher risk compared to moderate drinkers, who had three to seven drinks a week.

Women in the binge-drinking category were 68% more likely to develop heart disease compared to women who said they were moderate drinkers. Binge drinking was defined as having more than three drinks in a single day.

Men who had high alcohol intake (defined as 15 or more drinks per week) were 33% more likely to develop heart disease compared with men who had moderate intake, or three to 14 drinks a week.

Worth noting: There was no significant difference in risk between people who reported having moderate alcohol intake compared to low alcohol intake.

“There has long been this idea that alcohol is good for the heart — but more and more evidence is challenging that notion,” lead study author Dr. Jamal Rana, a cardiologist with the Permanente Medical Group and an adjunct investigator in the division of research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, tells Yahoo Life.

The study isn’t perfect — the researchers even pointed out that people tend to underreport how much alcohol they have to a health care provider, for example — but it’s raising a lot of questions about alcohol use and heart health, especially in women.

Why are women more at risk?

Doctors say there are a few issues at play here. “Overall, alcohol can raise blood pressure, which is a risk factor for coronary heart disease, and it may also trigger an inflammatory response,” Dr. Jennifer Wong, a cardiologist and medical director of Non-Invasive Cardiology at MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif., tells Yahoo Life. “Inflammation has been thought to contribute to atherosclerosis, which is the thickening or hardening of the arteries.” Alcohol can also raise cholesterol levels as well as the risk of obesity, both of which are coronary heart disease risk factors, she says.

But all of those factors are true for women and men. Why do women seem to be more at risk?

“Women process alcohol differently than men due to biological differences, including in body size,” Rana says. Women’s bodies usually absorb more alcohol, and it takes them longer to metabolize it, he explains.

Dr. Anne Curtis, a cardiologist at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, agrees. “It’s just body size to a large extent,” she tells Yahoo Life. “Women tend to be smaller than men and the amount of alcohol that you drink can have a greater impact.”

There’s also this to consider, according to Wong: “Women in general also seem more sensitive to cardiovascular risk factors.”

But alcohol use in young and middle-aged women has also been increasing, raising concerns about what this will mean for their heart health, Rana says.

For reference, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans — which does not recommend taking up an alcohol habit for health — suggest that women have no more than one drink a day, and that having even less is best.

What does this mean for men?

The study found the biggest jumps in risk in women, but men still had a higher risk of heart disease when they drank more. Still, men shouldn’t interpret the findings as an excuse to drink more than the recommended limit of two drinks a day, Curtis says.

“Men need to pay attention to this as well, particularly the information around binge drinking,” she says.

“We all should reduce our alcohol consumption, if we can,” Wong says. Rana agrees. “We need to raise awareness among both women and men that, at times, it is easy to go above recommended low levels of alcohol use, and that doing so can increase their risk for heart disease,” he says.