Could 2 Drinks a Day Raise Stroke Risk?

by WebMD April 5, 2019

FRIDAY, April 5, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Moderate drinking could increase your risk of stroke, a new study says.

Researchers followed more than 500,000 people in China for a decade. Overall, it found that alcohol boosts stroke risk by about one-third for every four additional drinks a day.

It also found that moderate drinking — up to two drinks a day — increased the risk of stroke by about 10 to 15 percent, and also slightly raised the risk of high blood pressure, the Associated Press reported.

The researchers couldn’t determine if moderate drinking might also increase the risk of heart attack, according to the study published online Thursday in The Lancet medical journal.

The findings challenge the theory that moderate drinking could provide some health benefits.

“The claims that alcohol has some magical, protective fix … has no particularly serious scientific basis,” said study co-senior author Richard Peto, University of Oxford, U.K., the AP reported.

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