BMJ  2006;332:1224-1225 (27 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7552.1224

Editorial

How much and how often should we drink?

Interpret with caution new evidence on frequency and amount of men's drinking

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

People choose to drink alcohol for all sorts of reasons, from toasting the happy couple to drowning sorrows and numbing pain. Few people choose to drink primarily to reduce their risk of coronary heart disease. However, the paper by Tolstrop and colleagues on p 1244 will be welcomed by many.¹ The authors studied more than 50 000 Danish men and women and report that to gain maximum cardioprotective benefit from alcohol, it doesn't matter how much men drink as long as they drink every day. I can hear the corks popping already, but before pouring the next glass and at the risk of being a wet—or should that be dry—blanket, it is worth bearing several caveats in mind.

Firstly, this finding applied only to men. For women it was the amount of alcohol consumed, regardless of frequency, that was the primary determinant in the relation between alcohol and heart disease. . . . [Full text of this article]

(a.britton@ucl.ac.uk), Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT

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• Anstey, K. J., Jorm, A. F., Reglade-Meslin, C., Maller, J., Kumar, R., von Sanden, C., Windsor, T. D., Rodgers, B., Wen, W., Sachdev, P. (2006). Weekly alcohol consumption, brain atrophy, and white matter hyperintensities in a community-based sample aged 60 to 64 years.. Psychosom. Med. 68: 778-785 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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