Alcohol heart benefits show up even after bypass surgery
Two to three drinks a day linked to decrease in heart problems after operation in men
By Nathan Seppa
CHICAGO — The cardiac benefits of having a daily drink or two might extend to a surprising group — men with heart disease so bad it has required coronary bypass surgery.
The value of light-to-moderate drinking for cardiovascular health has shown up previously in healthy people, with studies showing that — other things being equal — people who regularly drank in moderation had less heart disease and fewer strokes than did nondrinkers.
But moderate drinking’s protective benefits may also extend to those who already have some cardiovascular disease, suggests work presented by cardiac surgeon Umberto Benedetto of the University of Rome La Sapienza. Benedetto reported the new findings November 14 at the meeting of the American Heart Association.
He and his colleagues recruited 1,221 people who had disease severe enough to require coronary artery bypass surgery, in which a vessel is taken from another part of the body and grafted onto the heart. The grafted vessel serves as a clean conduit to restore normal blood flow to the heart muscle. In the United States, doctors perform the surgery, which bypasses a hopelessly clogged artery, on more than 300,000 people each year.