Now you are a nonsmoker, should you be a nondrinker, too? Here the evidence is not so clear. Many studies have tried to relate alcohol consumption to heart disease, and the results have often been surprising. So surprising, in fact, that the message has spread that regular drinking of moderate amounts of alcohol might actually be good for the heart, and that total abstention can raise your risk of angina and heart attack.
Sadly, I have to disabuse the reader of that opinion. Although the evidence does suggest that heart attack deaths are more common in teetotalers than in drinkers, the difference, if it truly exists, is very small, and is more than made up for by deaths from other causes that are directly caused by alcohol.
In theory, alcohol should help the heart. Alcohol tends to open up arteries—hence the drinker’s rosy cheeks (and nose!)—so that some doctors have argued that a little alcohol might benefit patients with coronary problems.
However, much depends on how we define “a little,” and on whether the patient can stick to the advice. “A little” can very easily become “a lot”!
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