Even moderate drinking may not be good for your heart

[abdulhakeem]

Asian News International

London, December 2, 2005

The belief that moderate drinking is good for heart gives a good excuse to alcohol lovers, but a new study published in the recent issue of The Lancet has challanged the notion, claiming that health benefits of alcohol are lesser than its harms.

Conventional medical wisdom has been that a pint of beer or two glasses of wine a day are good for the heart, but researchers warned that the apparent effect was probably because of other differences between drinkers and non-drinkers, unrelated to their alcohol consumption.

According to The Independent, health experts from New Zealand cite a large US study published earlier this year of 200,000 adults which found drinkers were healthier than non-drinkers, independently of their drinking.

Of 30 risk factors for heart disease, 27 were significantly more common in the non-drinkers. The researchers claim that the lower incidence of heart attacks in the drinkers is likely to be due to this difference in risk and have nothing to do with their alcohol consumption.

They say, if anything, the evidence is more compelling for a protective effect on the heart from heavy drinking. But this is outweighed by the other damaging effects. In the case of light to moderate drinking, any protective effect on the heart will be very small and unlikely to outweigh the harms.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/1...1100020006.htm

[abdulhakeem]

Moderate drinking may not help heart much

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The benefits of drinking alcohol in moderation may be outweighed by the harms, according to New Zealand researchers.

Many studies dating back more than 25 years suggest a 20-percent to 25-percent reduction in heart disease risk linked to light drinking, reported the BBC Friday.

However, lead researcher Dr. Rod Jackson, of the University of Auckland, said any coronary protection from light-to-moderate drinking would be very small and unlikely to outweigh the harms.

"If so, the public health message is clear. Do not assume there is a window in which the health benefits of alcohol are greater than the harms -- there is probably no free lunch," said Jackson.

The way the studies were carried out did not allow for researchers to say with certainty that the findings might have been due to other factors.
The findings are published in The Lancet.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/inde...nd-alcohol.xml

[tweety]

something was actually published, last few days or so...saying a few beers or so can helpbeat obesity. well...even if this is true..probably better not to start...it can get much worse from there.

hey i shouldnt blame the drink...its people that are bad right...

afterall...even guns dont kill people....people do...

(i need to take a break from ummah i think...im getting worked up and serious.....not very tweety like at all :D :D )

[Nawar]

SubhanAllah, wow, exactly as the qur'aan says;

'They ask you (O Muhammed (saw)) concerning alcoholic drink and gambling. Say "In them is a great sin, and some benefits for men, but the sin of them is greater than their benefit"....' (Al Baqarah:219)

SubhanAllah.......

[alikhlas99]

Once again, science agrees with Islam, much to the dismay of the Kuffar.

[senor]

stop building around your beliefs

i don't understand the terminology of kuffar, but if you mean a non-muslim then i'm one. dismayed, never. you don't have to be a genius to know that gambling and beer brings instant gratification but then in the extreme can be dangerous. that sentence you posted, it's hardly science(ya know, observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation.) it doesn't say its dangerous to your health and wealth, it just says its a sin...because someone said so. so on the contrary i believe its islam trying to agree with science.


stop building around your beliefs, from the inside out.
start with an open mind, from the outside inwards, within you'll find truth.

[Nawar]

i don't understand the terminology of kuffar, but if you mean a non-muslim then i'm one. dismayed, never. you don't have to be a genius to know that gambling and beer brings instant gratification but then in the extreme can be dangerous. that sentence you posted, it's hardly science(ya know, observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation.) it doesn't say its dangerous to your health and wealth, it just says its a sin...because someone said so. so on the contrary i believe its islam trying to agree with science.


stop building around your beliefs, from the inside out.
start with an open mind, from the outside inwards, within you'll find truth.

Unfortunately, that is because you do not understand the arabic language. when people sin, it refers to the fact that they do something wrong, they are distancing their souls from what is right, they are ultimately harming themselves spiritually AND it can also manifest PHYSICALLY. For example it depends on the sin...lying will have a more spiritual effect on your soul, whereas physically doing someing like drinking alcohol is a sin that has physical effects. hence the derivation that alcohol is bad for you.

Maybe if you looked at islam with an open mind, rather than with superiority, YOU would find the truth...Muslims start with the inside out, why??? because we believe that Allah created every soul on 'fitrah' (natural inclination of the heart to do good)........

[senor]

Unfortunately, that is because you do not understand the arabic language. when people sin, it refers to the fact that they do something wrong, they are distancing their souls from what is right, they are ultimately harming themselves spiritually AND it can also manifest PHYSICALLY. For example it depends on the sin...lying will have a more spiritual effect on your soul, whereas physically doing someing like drinking alcohol is a sin that has physical effects. hence the derivation that alcohol is bad for you.

Maybe if you looked at islam with an open mind, rather than with superiority, YOU would find the truth...Muslims start with the inside out, why??? because we believe that Allah created every soul on 'fitrah' (natural inclination of the heart to do good)........

nope i don't yet speak arabic, you got me there. but hows your irish?
sin is relative to belief, that fact that it is a sin is not directly, nor indirectly responsible for the physical results. its just the fact that excess is bad. smoking is bad for you too(you knew that of course), but i'm not going to label that a sin either. but like alcohol its effects are physical.

see when you start from the inside out you just cherry pick things to match your belief...rather, looking at the facts while acknowleding that we really don't KNOW what God is will lead us on a more accurate path, free from other people's, and our own biases.

[Nawar]

nope i don't yet speak arabic, you got me there. but hows your irish?
sin is relative to belief, that fact that it is a sin is not directly, nor indirectly responsible for the physical results. its just the fact that excess is bad. smoking is bad for you too(you knew that of course), but i'm not going to label that a sin either. but like alcohol its effects are physical.

see when you start from the inside out you just cherry pick things to match your belief...rather, looking at the facts while acknowleding that we really don't KNOW what God is will lead us on a more accurate path, free from other people's, and our own biases.

what im trying to say is Islamically, SIN=SOMETHING THAT HARMS YOU, WHETHER THAT BE SPIRITUAL OR PHYSICAL, hence science confirms what the Qur'aan stated.

No, when you start from the inside out, you follow the inclination of your soul and of your heart. You can see how the world is created prefectly, in harmony, you can see your own body-how it functions, you can see that the function of a cell, of an atom, is uniquely in harmony with everything around it, you see how the universe is structured, in a unique finite balance, any disruption in this amazing balance ultimately would lead to destruction....the list is endless...hence you establish the existance of a supreme Creator......its not bias, its clearly common sense...

if you start from the outside, it leads to a path of confusion, as you began in denial and you end up in a continuos cirlce of confusion trying to make logic of everything, ending in denial ......its the nature of the human being, we only believe what we see...
but Muslims hold steadfast to the belief that there is an unseen creator, who created us, and indeed the whole universe...and our proof???? from the Qur'aan, and by simply looking at the creation of the world around us with open eyes.........

[abdulhakeem]

Re: Even moderate drinking may not be good for your heart

Study dilutes alcohol's heart benefits

By CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE

WASHINGTON, March 30 (UPI) -- Your daily glass of wine might actually prove to be half-empty, according to new research that the heart benefits of drinking are overestimated.

"In our culture, we believe alcohol is healthy and culturally important -- an integral part of life," said lead author Dr. Kaye Fillmore, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. "But it may not necessarily benefit our heart."

Fillmore's research appeared Thursday in the online edition of the British journal Addiction Research and Theory, in advance of the May issue.

Fillmore and a team of Canadian and Australian researchers analyzed 54 previous studies on alcohol use and mortality, which included deaths from coronary heart disease. Mostly of the studies were published in the 1980s and 1990s, although they spanned 1950 to 2004.

Fillmore's analysis revealed a systematic error in the design of previous studies that may have exaggerated alcohol as a health boon.

In past studies, researchers who divided groups into "drinkers" and "abstainers" often counted abstainers as people who reduced or quit their drinking for medical reasons. In their findings, abstainers have higher death rates than drinkers.

At first blush, the abstainers appear at higher risk for heart disease because they refrained from drinking alcohol, and thus did not get its protective benefit. But in truth, Fillmore asserts, those in the abstainer category were often already frail and predisposed to death.

British heart specialist Gerry Shaper first proposed this research discrepancy in a 1988 study, and many researchers since have taken his observation seriously, trying to correct for the problem in their work, Fillmore said.

However, Fillmore's study suggests these alterations may still be inadequate, she said.

Fillmore and colleagues also looked at the seven studies without the error. In these studies, both groups -- the abstainers and the drinkers -- were at equal risk of dying. But when Fillmore reconstructed the error back into the data for the abstainer group, she found the abstainers were at a higher risk of dying than moderate drinkers.

The study authors caution that their report doesn't disprove the positives of light alcohol intake, defined as two drinks or fewer per day, but that there are still many unknowns.

For instance, the so-called French paradox: How can the French population eat so many rich foods, drink wine and still live well into old age? Fillmore said she doesn't know, but that other practices -- such as eating in moderation -- could come into play.

"The point to keep in mind is there are other factors that do exactly the same thing (for your health) and are probably less dangerous than alcohol," Fillmore said.

In fact, the positives of moderate alcohol intake -- raising HDL, the healthy cholesterol; reducing overactive blood clotting; and helping insulin sensitivity -- can be duplicated in a less riskier way with healthy diet and exercise, said Dr. Michael Criqui, a professor at the University of California, San Diego.

Likewise, recommending drinking as a lifestyle choice is unwise, Criqui added. "Overall, drinking causes more problems than it prevents," he said.

Others warned about interpreting Fillmore's study as the last word on alcohol intake.

"Personally, I don't see this as convincing proof that the evidence (on positive health effects) is wrong," said Dr. Ken Mukamal, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who has also done research on alcohol and health.

For instance, since most studies have compared alcohol's effects to the incidence of heart disease, not mortality, Fillmore's use of only mortality data may be a bit of a stretch, he said.

But he added the underlying theme is a fair one -- that scientists don't have definitive proof of whether alcohol really bolsters the heart.

For that reason, Fillmore hopes future studies will take into account the drinking history of their subjects.

"I feel that we are reopening the debate about this issue," Fillmore said. "We have not proved anything, but our work certainly calls for studies that are better designed."

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/inde...us-alcohol.xml

[abdulhakeem]

Re: Even moderate drinking may not be good for your heart

Studies showing health benefits of alcohol are flawed: report

31 March 2006
AFP

SAN FRANCISCO : Most studies suggesting that moderate drinking staves off heart disease are flawed, an international team of researchers concluded in a report released on Thursday.

In the suspect studies, people who had cut back or quit drinking because they were ill, frail or on medication were counted as "abstainers," whose death rates were compared to that of drinkers, said the study released in San Francisco.

The comparisons indicated that those who knocked back up to four drinks a day tended to live longer than abstainers.

The mortality difference could have been due to the shabby health of those compelled to give up booze rather than health benefits of alcohol, according to a research team led by universities in San Francisco and Victoria, Canada.

"These findings suggest that caution should be exerted in recommending light drinking to abstainers because of the possibility that this result may be more apparent than real," said Tim Stockwell of the Centre for Addictions Research at the University of Victoria.

Researchers analyzed 54 studies from North America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.

In the seven studies that counted only long-term teetotalers as abstainers, the results showed they were not more likely to die than moderate drinkers, according to researchers.

Too few studies have been done without the "abstainer error" to conclude that drinking has health benefits, the researchers said.

Moderate drinkers were those who consumed from two to four drinks a day.

Light drinkers were those who imbibed anywhere from a couple of times a week to once a month.

"We know that older people who are light drinkers are usually healthier than their non-drinking peers," said Kaye Fillmore of the University of California at San Francisco School of Nursing.

"Our research suggests light drinking is a sign of good health, not necessarily its cause."

The study was inspired by British heart specialist Gerry Shaper and funded principally by the Australian Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation, according to researchers.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...200792/1/.html

[abdulhakeem]

Re: Even moderate drinking may not be good for your heart

Benefits of Moderate Drinking Questioned

By Betsy Mason
ScienceNOW Daily News
30 March 2006

A glass of wine a day keeps the cardiologist away. At least that seems to be the point of numerous studies over the past 3 decades that have found a few alcoholic drinks per day can be beneficial. Now there's reason to believe that many of these studies are flawed.

The bulk of the 54 clinical studies that tested the effect of moderate drinking-- defined as two to four drinks per day--found that drinkers had a lower risk of death from heart disease and virtually every other cause than do people who don't drink. But some alcohol researchers were concerned that participants who had recently quit drinking were skewing the results by being lumped in with the abstainers. Because former drinkers often stopped drinking due to health problems or age, counting them as nondrinkers could bring down the average health of that group, making the drinkers appear relatively healthier.

So a team led by sociologist Kaye Fillmore of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing took a second look at the studies. The researchers found that only seven of the 54 studies excluded former drinkers. And none of those seven found a difference in risk of death for moderate drinkers and abstainers. The 47 studies that included former drinkers in their abstainer group concluded that moderate drinkers had a lower risk of death in general and from heart disease specifically.

The team took their analysis one step further by introducing the former drinker flaw into the seven studies that had excluded former drinkers from the abstainers group. When the former drinkers were included, the seven studies came to the same conclusion as the other 47: Moderate drinkers had a better outcome than nondrinkers did. The results are published online today in the journal Addiction Research and Theory.

"It appears to be a good study," says John Standridge, an alcohol addiction researcher at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga. But he notes that it's difficult to draw solid conclusions when so many types of studies are lumped together. And there is a lot of evidence for molecular mechanisms behind the benefits of drinking that increase HDL, or good cholesterol, and decrease blood clotting, Standridge says. "Bottom line is, there's no doubt in my mind that moderate alcohol consumption is beneficial."

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi...ull/2006/330/1

[abdulhakeem]

Re: Even moderate drinking may not be good for your heart

Just a few drinks 'may shrink brain'

Alcohol-free beer 'stops cancer'

[Kaizen]

Re: Even moderate drinking may not be good for your heart

as soon as we born we are dying

go for a run, you are destroying your knees
play a sport and you run the risk of getting injured
go outside and you risk getting hit by a car
your eye sight is deteriorating as we speak.

moderate drinking isn't going to kill you

islam right that a nation of drunks isn't good for the army or productivity. That's common sense, not some kind of religious insight.

If your brain shrinks, who cares?
As long as you worship allah then everything should be fine really?

[Tahiyah]

Re: Even moderate drinking may not be good for your heart

islam is very scientific

everything scientific obeys Allah

so many of the non muslim posters here are here just to refute everything Islam

try opening YOUR minds a little, but first you have to ask Allah to do that for you, seriously, ask him to show you to truth, so you can finally understand what it is you so badly try to disprove day in and day out

May Allah guide you