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Systematic review

56-study review: light wine linked to lower heart death, heavy drinking to higher

Krittanawong and colleagues · The American journal of medicine · 2022

Original title: Alcohol Consumption and Cardiovascular Health.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Mixed

Wine at 1-4 drinks per week was linked to lower heart death than beer or spirits. Heavier drinking of any kind was linked to higher heart death. The authors say lifestyle and other factors likely explain much of the wine benefit.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Systematic review
Who or what was studied
56 studies, 1,579,435 people · adults in 56 cohort studies from several countries
What was tested
Light to moderate drinking (such as 1-4 glasses of wine a week) vs beer, spirits or heavier drinking
What it measured
The question itself: heart disease and death
Who has a stake
No stake declared
Author ties are to drug companies and journals, not alcohol makers.
Journal
The American journal of medicine, 2022
Source
PubMed record 35580715. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • •Sums up 56 studies found with a set search method, without pooling the numbers.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: heart disease and death.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a systematic review, and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: heart disease

    0

    Not done yet. This is the step that would answer the question.

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    5

    3 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 harm

  5. Blood levels and genes

    6

    1 mixed, 2 no difference, 3 harm

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Is moderate drinking good or bad for your heart?”

Not shown to help; may harm.

Confidence: very low. Based on 21 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Other reviews on this question

See all 21 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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