Middle-aged people who have more than two alcoholic drinks a day could face a greater risk of stroke than those with high blood pressure and diabetes, researchers warned last night.
The finding is the latest to highlight the potential risks of daily drinking. An earlier study linked it to increased risk of liver cirrhosis.
A Czech study of 11,644 middle-aged Swedish twins found that heavy drinkers – those who had more than 2 alcoholic drinks a day – had about a 34% higher risk of stroke compared to light drinkers.
Writing in the latest edition of Stroke, the authors, who analysed data over 43 years from the Swedish Twin Registry, revealed that heavy drinkers in their 50s and 60s were likely to have a stroke 5 years earlier in life irrespective of genetic and early-life factors, while they also increased their stroke risk compared to well-known risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes.
Although previous studies have shown that alcohol affects stroke risk, this is the first to pinpoint differences with age.
Pavla Kadlecová, a statistician at St Anne’s University Hospital’s International Clinical Research Centre in the Czech Republic, said the study means that there is now a clearer picture about these risk factors, how they change with age and how the influence of drinking alcohol shifts as we get older.
Kadlecová and team analysed results from the Swedish Twin Registry of same-sex twins, all of whom were under the age of 60, who answered questionnaires from 1967 to 1970.
By 2010, the registry yielded 43 years of follow-up, including hospital discharge and cause of death data, which was sorted the data based on stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and other heart conditions.
Almost 30% of participants, who had been categorised as light, moderate, heavy or non-drinkers based on the questionnaires, had a stroke. Researchers compared the risk from alcohol and health risks such as high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.
Among the identical twin pairs, those who had had a stroke drank more than their siblings who had not had a stroke, which suggested that mid-life drinking raises stroke risks regardless of genetics and early lifestyle.
“For mid-aged adults, avoiding more than 2 drinks a day could be a way to prevent stroke in later productive age – about 60s,” Kadlecová said.
Kadlecová P. Alcohol Consumption at Midlife and Risk of Stroke During 43 Years of Follow-Up Cohort and Twin Analyses. Stroke 29 January 2015; doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.006724
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