Preventive cardiologyAssociation Between Consumption of Beer, Wine, and Liquor and Plasma Concentration of High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein in Women Aged 39 to 89 Years
Section snippets
Methods
The Women’s Health Study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of small-dose aspirin and Vitamin E for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. The trial participants are 39,876 female health professionals aged 39 to 89 years who have no history of heart disease, cancer (other than nonmelanoma skin cancer), or stroke at the beginning of follow-up. The institutional review board of Brigham and Women’s Hospital approved the Women’s Health Study, and all participants
Results
The characteristics of the population are described in Table 1. The overall pattern for the relation between alcohol intake and hs-CRP concentrations was inverse (Table 2). The inverse association was present only in women with BMIs ≥25; in leaner women, hs-CRP concentrations were substantially less and did not vary materially by alcohol intake. Also, the inverse relation was stronger in current and past smokers and in women without a history of hypertension or diabetes mellitus. Although the
Discussion
In this large population of 11,815 women, we found an inverse relation between alcohol consumption and plasma concentrations of hs-CRP, but this inverse relation was limited to overweight women. We found no difference in plasma concentrations of hs-CRP across types of alcoholic beverage consumed after taking into account BMI and other lifestyle factors. Although alcohol use did not explain as much variation in hs-CRP as BMI or physical activity, these results suggest that dietary intake may
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The Women’s Health Study was supported by research Grants HL43851 and CA47988 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.