A Drink A Day May Keep the Heart Doc Away (If You Have the Right Gene)
A Drink A Day May Keep the Heart Doc Away (If You Have the Right Gene)
Feb. 21, 2001 -- Here's to your health -- if you carry the proper gene, that is: People who drink moderate amounts of alcohol and who carry a specific form of a gene that controls the rate at which alcohol is broken down in their blood are at dramatically lower risk for heart attack than those who carry other forms of the gene, report researchers in the Feb. 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"There are a couple of intriguing aspects to this study. I think the first and most compelling is that this demonstrates how we're going to be able to use the emerging genetic knowledge, in that most of the impact is going to be [genetic] interactions with lifestyle factors and environmental factors, and this, I think, is a great illustration of how this is going to play out. We're not going to find the gene for heart disease, but I think we'll find other examples of interactions," says co-author Meier J. Stampfer, MD, DrPH, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, in an interview with WebMD.
In a study of more than 1,000 male physicians who are taking part in a large long-term health study, lead author Lisa M. Hines, SM, and colleagues found that moderate drinkers who carry two copies of a specific version of a gene -- alcohol dehydrogenase-3 (ADH3) -- have a substantially lower risk of having a heart attack than people with no copies or only one copy. This gene controls how fast alcohol is broken down in the blood, or oxidized.
In general, the men who drank at least one potent potable a day had a lower risk for heart attack than those who knocked back fewer than one a week. The most dramatic effect, however, was seen among the moderate drinkers who carry both copies of a specific form of ADH3-- the slow-oxidizing form. These "slow oxidizers" had a whopping 86% reduction in their risk of heart attack, and also had the highest levels of HDL cholesterol, the "good" type. The authors found the same relationship between the ADH3gene type, alcohol use, and HDL levels in an independent study of 325 postmenopausal women from a different large-scale health study.
A Drink A Day May Keep the Heart Doc Away (If You Have the Right Gene)
Feb. 21, 2001 -- Here's to your health -- if you carry the proper gene, that is: People who drink moderate amounts of alcohol and who carry a specific form of a gene that controls the rate at which alcohol is broken down in their blood are at dramatically lower risk for heart attack than those who carry other forms of the gene, report researchers in the Feb. 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"There are a couple of intriguing aspects to this study. I think the first and most compelling is that this demonstrates how we're going to be able to use the emerging genetic knowledge, in that most of the impact is going to be [genetic] interactions with lifestyle factors and environmental factors, and this, I think, is a great illustration of how this is going to play out. We're not going to find the gene for heart disease, but I think we'll find other examples of interactions," says co-author Meier J. Stampfer, MD, DrPH, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, in an interview with WebMD.
In a study of more than 1,000 male physicians who are taking part in a large long-term health study, lead author Lisa M. Hines, SM, and colleagues found that moderate drinkers who carry two copies of a specific version of a gene -- alcohol dehydrogenase-3 (ADH3) -- have a substantially lower risk of having a heart attack than people with no copies or only one copy. This gene controls how fast alcohol is broken down in the blood, or oxidized.
In general, the men who drank at least one potent potable a day had a lower risk for heart attack than those who knocked back fewer than one a week. The most dramatic effect, however, was seen among the moderate drinkers who carry both copies of a specific form of ADH3-- the slow-oxidizing form. These "slow oxidizers" had a whopping 86% reduction in their risk of heart attack, and also had the highest levels of HDL cholesterol, the "good" type. The authors found the same relationship between the ADH3gene type, alcohol use, and HDL levels in an independent study of 325 postmenopausal women from a different large-scale health study.
Source...