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Study Shows Benefits of Alcohol

Aired January 09, 2003 - 14:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: This ought to catch your attention. A gin and tonic a day could help keep the cardiologist away. But if you prefer beer or wine -- well, a new study says that's OK, too. The research shows that drinking any kind of alcoholic drink can reduce the risk of heart attacks. It's how often you drink that's supposed to count.
CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta now joining us live with those details. All right. You can imagine this was the big talk of the news room today.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And gin and tonic apparently your drink of choice there, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Only if it's a good gin.

GUPTA: Good gin.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about how this alcohol does help the heart.

GUPTA: Well, we've known for a long time that, certainly, alcohol does seem to have some benefit on the heart. People talk about red wine all the time, but Kyra, as you mentioned, a lot of different types of alcohol, red wine, white wine, beer and hard liquor, according to a new study out of the "New England Journal of Medicine" all seem to have some benefit as well.

They actually looked at a lot of people, 38,000 people. Here's some of what they found. One to two times a week, if you are drinking alcohol drink, 12 percent lowered risk of having a heart attack compared to your non-drinking counterparts. Five to seven times a week, that is drinking pretty frequently, a 37 percent lower risk -- you can see a pretty significant lower risk of having a heart attack if you're drinking frequently.

And Kyra, that's really the big difference between this study and previous studies. It's not how much you drink, but really if you are a drinker to go ahead and space the amount of drinking out. And again, it doesn't matter what kind of alcohol, the red wine, beer, hard liquor, anything seems to have some degree of benefit. In fact, they noted that, in fact, red wine actually was the lowest on the sort of scale of what actually offers benefit.

A lot of people ask me, Kyra, why does alcohol protect the heart? And here are some reasons. Here's what alcohol actually does. It decreases inflammation, and we're talking about inflammation within the blood vessels now. It also decreases oxidation. That is the sort of process that leads to hardening of the arteries. That is something that everyone knows about, can cause a heart attack.

Raises the good kind of cholesterol, drink a little bit of alcohol, raise your good cholesterol, and blood thinning. Actually, blood thinning is a good thing to try and prevent heart attacks as well. That's how aspirin works. Alcohol may provide you some of those benefits as well.

Regardless of all that stuff, there are some downside as well, as you know. And that's why -- it raises a lot of eye brows, as you say, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I have my producer in my ear saying "What about a bottle of red wine a day?"

GUPTA: The amount of alcohol -- they actually talked about that, funny you should ask -- one to two drinks at any given time is what they actually recommended. They call that moderate drinking as opposed to drinking an entire bottle of wine, whoever that producer may be.

Alcohol in small amounts does have some side effects, as you can see there, Kyra, you can read the list. Slows brain activity, interferes with sexual function, sleep function. Produces headaches, raises blood pressure. Kyra, every medication we take -- not that alcohol is a medicine-- but every medication we take, you have got to weigh the risks, you have got to weigh the benefits. You have seen some of both there.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, do you think doctors will start prescribing alcohol as a treatment to high-risk heart patients?

GUPTA: I think that's an excellent question. I want to be careful here, because we don't really know the answer to that. My guess is they're probably not going to think of alcohol as a medicine. Why? Because there are a lot of good medicines out there that don't have the same risks as alcohol, quite simply.

The flip side of that, of course, if your patient, if a patient is a drinker, someone who likes to drink alcohol, then here's what the doctors are probably going to recommend: space out your drinking. Drink in frequent intervals as opposed to binge drinking a lot at any given time. That is probably what they are going to recommend. And don't overdo it, because you can get all those risks still of alcohol, including addiction, if that's a problem -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

GUPTA: I'll buy you a drink.

PHILLIPS: I was going to say, let's go have a cocktail after work. What do you say?

GUPTA: Sure. It's good for you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, doc.

GUPTA: Good seeing you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 9, 2003 - 14:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: This ought to catch your attention. A gin and tonic a day could help keep the cardiologist away. But if you prefer beer or wine -- well, a new study says that's OK, too. The research shows that drinking any kind of alcoholic drink can reduce the risk of heart attacks. It's how often you drink that's supposed to count.
CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta now joining us live with those details. All right. You can imagine this was the big talk of the news room today.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And gin and tonic apparently your drink of choice there, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Only if it's a good gin.

GUPTA: Good gin.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about how this alcohol does help the heart.

GUPTA: Well, we've known for a long time that, certainly, alcohol does seem to have some benefit on the heart. People talk about red wine all the time, but Kyra, as you mentioned, a lot of different types of alcohol, red wine, white wine, beer and hard liquor, according to a new study out of the "New England Journal of Medicine" all seem to have some benefit as well.

They actually looked at a lot of people, 38,000 people. Here's some of what they found. One to two times a week, if you are drinking alcohol drink, 12 percent lowered risk of having a heart attack compared to your non-drinking counterparts. Five to seven times a week, that is drinking pretty frequently, a 37 percent lower risk -- you can see a pretty significant lower risk of having a heart attack if you're drinking frequently.

And Kyra, that's really the big difference between this study and previous studies. It's not how much you drink, but really if you are a drinker to go ahead and space the amount of drinking out. And again, it doesn't matter what kind of alcohol, the red wine, beer, hard liquor, anything seems to have some degree of benefit. In fact, they noted that, in fact, red wine actually was the lowest on the sort of scale of what actually offers benefit.

A lot of people ask me, Kyra, why does alcohol protect the heart? And here are some reasons. Here's what alcohol actually does. It decreases inflammation, and we're talking about inflammation within the blood vessels now. It also decreases oxidation. That is the sort of process that leads to hardening of the arteries. That is something that everyone knows about, can cause a heart attack.

Raises the good kind of cholesterol, drink a little bit of alcohol, raise your good cholesterol, and blood thinning. Actually, blood thinning is a good thing to try and prevent heart attacks as well. That's how aspirin works. Alcohol may provide you some of those benefits as well.

Regardless of all that stuff, there are some downside as well, as you know. And that's why -- it raises a lot of eye brows, as you say, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I have my producer in my ear saying "What about a bottle of red wine a day?"

GUPTA: The amount of alcohol -- they actually talked about that, funny you should ask -- one to two drinks at any given time is what they actually recommended. They call that moderate drinking as opposed to drinking an entire bottle of wine, whoever that producer may be.

Alcohol in small amounts does have some side effects, as you can see there, Kyra, you can read the list. Slows brain activity, interferes with sexual function, sleep function. Produces headaches, raises blood pressure. Kyra, every medication we take -- not that alcohol is a medicine-- but every medication we take, you have got to weigh the risks, you have got to weigh the benefits. You have seen some of both there.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, do you think doctors will start prescribing alcohol as a treatment to high-risk heart patients?

GUPTA: I think that's an excellent question. I want to be careful here, because we don't really know the answer to that. My guess is they're probably not going to think of alcohol as a medicine. Why? Because there are a lot of good medicines out there that don't have the same risks as alcohol, quite simply.

The flip side of that, of course, if your patient, if a patient is a drinker, someone who likes to drink alcohol, then here's what the doctors are probably going to recommend: space out your drinking. Drink in frequent intervals as opposed to binge drinking a lot at any given time. That is probably what they are going to recommend. And don't overdo it, because you can get all those risks still of alcohol, including addiction, if that's a problem -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

GUPTA: I'll buy you a drink.

PHILLIPS: I was going to say, let's go have a cocktail after work. What do you say?

GUPTA: Sure. It's good for you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, doc.

GUPTA: Good seeing you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com