However, binge drinking, even by light to moderate selleckchem Ruxolitinib drinkers, leads to an increased risk of ischemic events by increasing the probability of clotting and abnormal contractions of the heart chambers (i.e., ventricular fibrillation). As with hemorrhagic stroke, alcohol has different effects on morbidity than on mortality related to ischemic events (see figure 5). Thus, meta-analyses of alcohol consumption and the risk of ischemic heart disease (Roerecke and Rehm 2012) and ischemic stroke (Taylor et al. 2009) found a larger protective effect for morbidity than for mortality related to these conditions. One possible explanation for this observation, in addition to those listed above for hemorrhagic stroke, is that patients in the morbidity studies may be younger at the time of the stroke than those in mortality studies.

Despite the increased risk for ischemic heart disease at higher levels of alcohol consumption noted in observational studies (see Roerecke and Rehm 2012 for the most up-to-date meta-analysis), there was not enough evidence for a detrimental effect of alcohol consumption on ischemic heart disease for it to be modeled in the 2005 GBD study. Figure 5 The relationship between increasing amounts of average daily alcohol consumption and the relative risk for ischemic heart disease, with lifetime abstainers serving as the reference group. Low to moderate alcohol consumption has a beneficial effect on … Moreover, the observational studies investigating the link between alcohol consumption and ischemic events had several methodological flaws, and the RR functions for ischemic events, especially ischemic heart disease, therefore are not well defined.

A meta-analysis conducted by Roerecke and Rehm (2012) observed a substantial degree of heterogeneity among all consumption levels, pointing to a possible confounding effect of heavy drinking. In addition, previous observational studies have been limited by the inclusion of ��sick quitters�� in the reference groups, who have an increased risk of ischemic events compared with lifetime abstainers. Digestive Diseases Alcohol is associated with various liver diseases and is most strongly related to fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis. The association between the risk of liver cirrhosis and alcohol consumption has long been recognized (see figure 6).

The main biological mechanism contributing to this liver damage likely involves the breakdown of ethanol in the liver through oxidative and nonoxidative pathways that result in the production of free radicals, acetaldehyde, and fatty acid ethyl esters, which AV-951 then damage liver cells (Tuma and Casey 2003). Given the same amount of alcohol consumption, alcohol increases the risk of mortality from liver cirrhosis more steeply than the risk of morbidity because it worsens the course of liver disease and has a detrimental effect on the immune system (Rehm et al.