DRINKING in moderation really is good for you. But just how good depends on
your genetic make-up, say researchers in Boston.
Lisa Hines of the Harvard School of Public Health and her colleagues have
found that people with gene variants that make them metabolise ethanol slowly
benefit most. Moderate alcohol consumption greatly reduces these people鈥檚 risk
of having a heart attack.
Many epidemiological studies have shown that a few drinks a day cut the risk
of a heart attack, but there has always been the niggling doubt that lifestyle
factors linked to moderate alcohol intake were at work. Now Hines鈥檚 genetic
studies confirm that the alcohol itself is beneficial.
Advertisement
The researchers knew that an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase 3 exists in
two forms, one of which breaks down ethanol more quickly. They looked at the
genes of 396 people who鈥檇 had a mild heart attack and 770 healthy controls to
see which form of the enzyme they had. They also looked at their alcohol
intake.
Men with two copies of the gene for the slower enzyme who drank daily were
the most protected from heart attack, Hines found. 鈥淭hey had an approximately 86
per cent reduction in risk,鈥� she says, compared with men with two copies of the
fast enzyme gene who had less than one drink a week.
A study of 325 women confirmed the finding. Hines believe that alcohol may
protect against heart disease by raising levels of high-density lipoprotein, the
鈥済ood鈥� form of cholesterol. Among people who drank moderately, the highest
levels of high-density lipoprotein were seen in those with two copies of the
gene for the slower enzyme.
