Posted on: April 30, 2007
Hard-Core College Drinking Leads to Trouble
By CTW Features
Image courtesy iStock Photo
Drinking might be many college students’ rite of passage, but overdoing it is a setup for potential heart disease later in life, says a study reported at an American Heart Association conference.
For students, the signs are all there right now.
“These students may be setting themselves up for an increased risk of cardiovascular disease,” says Elizabeth Donovan, who lead the research project at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn.
When researchers checked levels of a substance, called C-reactive protein, that signifies an increased risk of heart disease, they found that heavy drinkers had the highest levels of it, putting them at risk for future heart disease, according to Donovan.
Drinkers were categorized as:
Nondrinkers: They drank one or less alcoholic beverages a week.
Moderate drinkers: They drank two to five alcoholic beverages one or two days a week.
Heavy drinkers: They drank three or more drinks a week or consumed five or more drinks in a sitting at least two days a week.
Other puzzling results turned up in the study: Male drinkers with high levels of CRP also had a high body mass index, an indicator for overweight or obesity. Students with lower, healthier levels of the protein tended to eat more produce. And students who had a family history of heart disease tended to have higher CRP levels.
Drinking in moderation is fine, according to The American Heart Association, as long as adults keep it to one or two drinks a day for men and one drink for women.
What’s a Drink?
12 ounces of beer
4 ounces of wine
1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits
1 ounce of 100-proof spirits
