Alcohol Consumption Can Save You From Having A Stroke

By Author: Ivan Cuxeva
Total Articles: 782
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Let us clarify this situation right off the bat, everything in excess is bad for your health, consuming and excessive amount of alcohol on a daily basis will without a doubt increase the risk of stroke. Now that we got that out of the way let's move on to the actual studies and findings regarding the link between alcohol and stroke.

A stroke occurs when the brain stops receiving the vital oxygen which is carried by blood which flows through the blood vessels, the brain can stop receiving oxygen due to an obstruction (Ischemic stroke) or because of a ruptured vessel (hemorrhagic) -- according to recent medical studies stroke is the third leading cause of death among Americans and is also a major cause of disability. Out of all the people who survive a stroke about 20% need institutionalized care and nearly 30% are permanently disabled.

In 2003, Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine provided heavy evidence which indicates that an excessive consumption of alcohol can increase the risk of stroke while low to moderate consumption ...
... can protect against it.

Nearly half a million men and women were involved in the research, all of them were from different parts of the world and a total of 35 observational studies were conducted, in order to compare the results of people who drink alcohol to those who don't a group of individuals called "controls" were kept from consuming any alcohol. The findings were nothing less than eye opening:

Excessive alcohol consumption:

Compared to controls (people who didn't consuming alcohol) people who consumed 60 g of any alcoholic beverage (the equivalent of five drinks) suffer from a serious elevated risk of stroke, they had a 64% elevated risk of suffering from total stroke which is a combination of hemorrhagic and ischemic, they had a 69% risk of suffering from ischemic and an alarming 118% risk of suffering from hemorrhagic.

Light to moderate alcohol consumption:

Compared to controls subjects who consumed less than 12 g a day (the equivalent of one drink) lower the risk of total stroke by as much a 17 % and the risk of ischemic was reduced by as much as 20%. Those who consume two drinks a day or between 12 to 24 g which is considered moderate, were able to reduce the risk of ischemic stroke by as much as 28%, anything beyond that amount of daily alcohol consumption doesn't provide any additional benefit when it comes to preventing the devastating effects of a stroke.

The results are somewhat controversial because most people will consume alcohol do not know the boundaries between though, moderate and excessive alcohol consumption.