Moderation in drinking might be linked to stroke risk reduction

One of the repeated themes you'll see here: moderation.

And here's one more reason to repeat it - researchers might link a little alcohol each day to cut your stroke risk:

A research team from England and Sweden reviewed 25 studies as well as national data from Sweden. The investigators reported that consumption of up to two drinks a day was associated with a lower risk of ischemic stroke (blocked blood flow to the brain), but appeared to have no effect on the risk of bleeding (hemorrhagic) stroke. ...

High-to-heavy drinking (two to more than four drinks a day) was associated with an added risk of both types of stroke, according to the findings published online Nov. 23 in the journal BMC Medicine.

"Our results showed that heavy drinkers were about 1.6 times more likely to suffer from intracerebral hemorrhage and 1.8 times more likely to suffer from subarachnoid hemorrhage. The association between heavy alcohol consumption and these two types of stroke was stronger than that for ischemic stroke," lead author Susanna Larsson said in a journal news release. She is an associate professor of epidemiology at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

What's your take?

(Photo from Phil Denton via Flickr)