Can Stroke be Prevented by Drinking in Small Amounts? Not in the Long-Term!
- Research Team of Professor Lee Seung-Hoon at SNUH, analyzed data from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort
- First in the world to report . . . whether or not the occurrence of cerebral infarction is related to related to drinking patterns
[Photo, from left to right] Professor Lee Seung-Hoon (Department of Neurology), Doctor Yang Wook-Jin
A Korean research team conducted a study analyzing the relationship between drinking patterns and cerebral infarction. According to the study results, drinking alcohol in small amounts does not prevent cerebral infarction in the long term.
This conclusion is different from the popular belief that drinking alcohol in small amounts prevents strokes, especially cerebral infarction, unlike the ‘French paradox’ that argues that wine consumption prevents cardiovascular diseases.
On December 8th, the research team of Professor Lee Seung-Hoon in the Department of Neurology (first author: Yang Wook-Jin) at Seoul National University Hospital presented the results of their study, which analyzed the relationship between individual drinking patterns and occurrence of cerebral infarction, based on healthy middle-aged Koreans without any history of cerebral infarction.
The research team tracked the occurrence rate of cerebral infarction in 152,469 participants using data from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort, in relation to each participant’s drinking patterns.
Participants were divided into groups as follows: ▲ abstainers ▲ drinker group I (30g or less per day, 4 or less days per week) ▲ drinker group II (30g or less per day, 5 or more days per week) ▲ drinker group III (30g or more per day, 4 or less days per week) ▲ drinker group IV (30g or more per day, 5 or more days per week). 30g of alcohol is equal to approximately a half a bottle of soju.
[Figure] Hazard ratio of cerebral infarction in relation to drinking patterns
According to the results, those who drank 4 or less days per week, regardless of their intake amount per day, showed a decrease in the risk of cerebral infarction by 20-29%, when compared with abstainers.
Those who drank 5 or more days per week, more than a half a bottle of soju each day, showed an increase in the risk of cerebral infarction by 43%. This study is the first in the world to show that efforts to prevent cerebral infarction by drinking in small amounts are ineffective in the long-term.
The research team explained that because stroke is a disease that gets placed in the Top 1 or 2 in the death rate or disability rate rankings even with all the medical care available, prevention is more important than trying to treat it after it occurs, and the best way to prevent is to control the risk-inducing factors.
“The results of our study disprove the popular belief that drinking in small amounts prevents cerebral infarction. In the long term, drinking in small amounts doesn’t help prevent cerebral infarction at all. What’s more, drinking a little more than just those small amounts can greatly increase the risk of cerebral infarction,” Professor Lee Seung-Hoon (President of The Korean Cerebrovascular Research Institute) said. “This means that we must rethink about drinking as a way of preventing cerebral infarction,” he added.
The study was published in Stroke, the most prestigious academic journal in the field of strokes worldwide.
The study was supported by Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea, and the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.