According to a recent study, the women who have about seven glasses or beer or wine per week are less likely to be affected by a stroke. The specialists say that women shouldn’t have more than a glass per day. This means that you shouldn’t start drinking just to avoid a stroke.

Make no mistake… the specialists don’t encourage women to start drinking if they don’t have this habit already. The truth is that alcohol has both advantages and disadvantages. While on one hand it prevents strokes, it also causes atrial fibrillation and high bloodpressure that could lead to strokes.

Moderate Drinking Could Prevent Strokes in Women

Drinking habits

There were some other studies as well suggesting that moderate drinking could prevent a stroke. The latest study worked with 83,000 women for over 26 years.

The specialists compared the habits of women regarding drinking to see whether they have a stroke or not.

Stroke rates

Women were divided into different categories according to their drinking habits. There were 25,000 women who didn’t drink. About 4% of them had a stroke sooner or later. On the other hand only 2% of the women had a stroke of those who had an average of half a drink per day.

The most interesting fact only one of 200 of those who had a drink on a daily basis suffered a stroke.

Risk factors

Naturally the specialists also took into consideration other risk factors such as being overweight, smoking and history of heart disease. According to the results the chances of suffering a stroke could be decreased by 17%-21%.

However the study didn’t manage to prove that alcohol can truly prevent strokes. In the same time the specialists didn’t find a direct link between drinking and strokes.

Lifestyle parameters

Some of the specialists are of the opinion that the results could have some connection with socioeconomic status. The people with a lower status are more likely to suffer a stroke or to have cardiovascular problems.

This opinion is based on the fact that alcoholic beverages are quite expensive. It means that the people who can afford to have a drink daily have a higher socioeconomic status. It looks like it’s all about the lifestyle.

Still it is possible that it really is the effect of alcohol. It is known that it prevents blood clots and it can also change the cholesterol levels. This study didn’t show increased risks in case of women who had more drinks than recommended. Still, in spite of having some benefits, drinking should always be moderate in order not to become a health hazard.