{"id":557148,"date":"2026-04-29T15:41:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/557148\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:41:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:41:31","slug":"cardiologist-warns-one-glass-a-day-significantly-raises-heart-disease-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/557148\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiologist warns one glass a day ‘significantly’ raises heart disease risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major study of more than 430,000 people found ‘surprising’ results<\/p>\n

13:26, 28 Apr 2026Updated 00:45, 29 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

\"Senior<\/p>\n

A cardiologist explained the results(Image: Fabio Camandona via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A cardiologist has explained how just one drink a day of a particular beverage can heighten the risk of heart disease.<\/p>\n

Women who drink as little as a glass of wine daily and two at weekends face a “significantly higher” risk of developing heart disease, according to a study. American researchers found that women consuming more than eight alcoholic drinks per week were nearly 50 per cent more likely to develop the potentially fatal condition.<\/p>\n

Binge drinkers of both sexes were also found to be at considerably greater risk of heart disease. The 2024 study from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) – one of the largest ever conducted into the link between alcohol and coronary heart disease – cautioned that heavy-drinking young and middle-aged women were particularly vulnerable, regardless of their age.<\/p>\n

Heart attacks and other forms of heart disease are currently increasing amongst younger generations in both the US and the UK. Coronary heart disease develops when the arteries supplying blood to the heart become narrowed, restricting blood flow.<\/p>\n

This condition can trigger chest pain and acute episodes such as heart attacks. Alcohol consumption and episodic drinking – or binge drinking – have also increased amongst women in recent decades.<\/p>\n

Flu cure was hiding in the human body all this time, nasal spray to reverse brain ageing, alien-like amphibian holds key to regrowing limbs, and scientists make potion to banish baldness – all this and more in our latest science newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The study found a higher risk in women on particular(Image: Ana Mandic via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“When it comes to binge drinking, both men and women with excess alcohol consumption had a higher risk of heart disease,” explained Dr Jamal Rana, a cardiologist and lead author of the study. “For women, we find consistently higher risk even without binge drinking. I wasn’t expecting these results among women in this lower age group because we usually see increased risk for heart disease among older women. It was definitely surprising.”<\/p>\n

The researchers drew on data from more than 430,000 people who received treatment through the Kaiser Permanente Northern California integrated health organisation. Participants included nearly 243,000 men and 189,000 women with an average age of 44, none of whom had heart disease at the outset of the study.<\/p>\n

Details on alcohol consumption were gathered during primary care visits using the health organisation’s standard ‘Alcohol as a Vital Sign’ screening programme, which features visual reference posters to assist patients in estimating their alcohol intake according to standard measurements. The researchers examined the link between patients’ drinking levels, recorded during routine check-ups in 2014 and 2015, and coronary heart disease diagnoses over the subsequent four years.<\/p>\n

Using self-reported assessments, researchers placed participants’ overall alcohol consumption into three categories: low (one to two drinks per week for both men and women), moderate (three to 14 drinks per week for men and three to seven drinks per week for women), or high (15 or more drinks per week for men and eight or more drinks per week for women). They separately classified each participant based on whether they engaged in binge drinking – defined as consuming more than four drinks for men or more than three drinks for women in a single day over the past three months – or not. Those who reported no alcohol consumption were excluded from the study, and the researchers controlled for age, physical activity, smoking and other established cardiovascular risk factors.<\/p>\n

\"Caucasian<\/p>\n

Binge-drinking raised the risk further(Image: AzmanL via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A total of 3,108 patients were diagnosed with coronary heart disease during the four-year follow-up period, with researchers discovering that the incidence of coronary heart disease rose alongside higher levels of alcohol consumption. Amongst women, those who reported high alcohol intake had a 45 per cent elevated risk of heart disease compared with those reporting low intake, and a 29 per cent increased risk compared with those reporting moderate intake.<\/p>\n

Binge-drinking heart warning<\/p>\n

Yet the most significant difference was found amongst individuals in the binge drinking category – with women in this group being a staggering two-thirds more likely (68 per cent) to develop heart disease compared to those with moderate alcohol intake.<\/p>\n

Men with high overall intake were also a third (33 per cent) more likely to develop heart disease compared with men who reported moderate intake. The findings revealed no meaningful difference in risk between people who reported moderate versus low alcohol intake, regardless of whether they were also classified as binge drinkers.<\/p>\n

“Women feel they’re protected against heart disease until they’re older, but this study shows that even when you’re young or middle-aged, if you are a heavy alcohol user or binge drink, you are at risk for coronary heart disease,” Dr Rana said.<\/p>\n

Alcohol has been shown to elevate blood pressure<\/a> and trigger metabolic changes linked to inflammation and obesity, with women also metabolising alcohol differently to men. Dr Rana and his team cautioned that their research underscores the health dangers of alcohol consumption and the significance of factoring in alcohol use when assessing and preventing heart disease.<\/p>\n

“When it comes to heart disease, the number one thing that comes to mind is smoking, and we do not think about alcohol as one of the vital signs,” Dr Rana added. “I think a lot more awareness is needed, and alcohol should be part of routine health assessments moving forward.”<\/p>\n

One drawback of the study – which Dr Rana presented at the ACC’s Annual Scientific Session in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 2024 – was that patients are widely thought to under-report their alcohol intake. Consequently, the researchers suggest their study’s estimates of heart disease risk associated with alcohol consumption are likely to be ‘conservative’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major study of more than 430,000 people found ‘surprising’ results 13:26, 28 Apr 2026Updated 00:45, 29 Apr…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[235,64393,6612,59,102,2750,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-557148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alcohol","tag-binge-drinking","tag-blood-pressure","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-heart-disease","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}