When my boyfriend comes home from a stressful day at work, he will occasionally crack open a cold beer (or four) to help relieve his tension. I bite my tongue, but usually want to say, “I think some exercise would be better for your stress and it would help your heart, too.” I’m just trying to be a helpful girlfriend, but keep quite to avoid being a nag (he often hears the “eat better and exercise more” chant from me).

It turns out, that alcohol, even a lot of it, may actually be good for his heart. A major Spanish study suggests moderate, high and even very high  consumption of alcohol cuts the risk of heart disease in men by 50 percent (Heart. 19 November 2009. doi:10.1136/hrt.2009.173419). The ladies again get the short end of the stick because the study, which involved more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women, did not find the same heart health benefits for women.

The study placed the participants into six categories – from never drinking to drinking more than 90g of alcohol each day (about eight bottles of wine a week, or 28 pints of lager). For men drinking less than a shot of vodka a day, the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk was reduced by 35 percent.  And for men who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk was about 50 percent less. The type of alcohol the men drank didn’t matter, but they found drinking a wide variety of types had a beneficial effect.

We’ve known for a while that moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of (CVD), but this is the first I’ve heard that getting wasted every day may help men’s heart. Maybe next time my guy wants some booze after work, I should encourage him. But it will be difficult because I will be lacing up my jogging shoes to help my heart (it’s a shame they didn’t find the same effect in women).