Two Drinks a Day Significantly Raises Senior Heart Risk

Moderate drinking can affect your heart if you are an elderly person, a new study has revealed.

According to the study results, even as much as two drinks a day could possibly be harmful and may affect the heart function of senior citizens.

For the research, scientists from Harvard Medical School poured over the medical files of 4,446 participants that included both men and women. The average age of the patients when their hearts were scanned was 75 years.

When questioned on their drinking habits, it was observed that 2400 participants were not drinking any alcohol, 1500 participants were found to have 1-7 drinks in a week, 402 had 7-14 drinks a week while the rest more than 14.

While looking at heart scans, scientists realized higher alcohol consumption resulted in increased left ventricular mas.

"We found that as you get past the moderate alcohol exposure into two drinks or above per day in men, we start to see evidence of alteration of structure and function that we think could potentially in the long term be deleterious," said Dr. Solomon, lead author of the study.

Women were found to be more vulnerable to heart damage and recorded the same kinds of effects with just 1 drink a day.

"In an elderly population, increasing alcohol intake is associated with subtle alterations in heart structure and function, with women appearing more susceptible than men to the toxic effects of alcohol," said Dr. Alexandra Goncalves, postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.