How just one pint a day can prematurely age arteries

MEN who down more than a pint of beer a day over several years may increase their chances of heart disease by prematurely ageing their arteries.

The finding comes from a British study suggesting that drinking can affect the elasticity of arterial walls, interfering with the flow of blood.

Alcohol seemed not to have the same effect on women, although the researchers pointed out that 73 per cent of the 3,869 participants in the University College London study were men.

The researchers found the link between alcohol and arteries when examining the drinking habits of people aged from 30 to 60 over a 25-year period.

Participants reported the number of glasses of wine, pints of beer or cider, and measures of spirits or liqueurs consumed in the week preceding each assessment of their arteries.

The researchers compared alcohol consumption with measurements of the main arteries found in the neck and thigh.

Dr Darragh O’Neill, an epidemiologist and lead author of the study, said: ‘Heavier alcohol intake may activate certain enzymes that would lead to collagen accumulation, which could, in turn exacerbate the rate of arterial stiffening.

‘Based on these findings, the research team wants to look at multiple groups of people – since this study was limited to a single group that was mostly male – and identify the relationship that drinking patterns over time have with other indicators of cardiovascular disease.’

The study defined higher-risk drinking as consuming roughly the equivalent of seven pints of beer or cider or seven double whiskys, vodkas or gins.

Excessive boozing has been linked in other studies to high blood pressure and obesity, stroke, certain types of cancer, suicide and accidents.

The university’s findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.