Why in News?

• One or two drinks a day might protect against stroke are not true, according to the results of a major genetic study.

Details:

• Previous researches claim that consuming one to two alcoholic drinks may prevent stroke development. The new study refutes this statement in a large collaborative investigation.
• Scientists discovered that alcohol itself, regardless of amount, can directly spike up blood pressure, and subsequently cause stroke.
• East Asians have common genetic variants that are known to lower alcohol tolerability due to the unpleasant flushing reaction that occurs after drinking. Such can be used for the study of alcohol effects because this is not connected to other lifestyle choices such as smoking. The researchers concluded that alcohol amps up the risk of stroke by about 35 percent for every four additional drinks per day, without any protective mechanism noted.
• Western people do not have the same genetic variant found in the East Asians involved in the study, but the researchers think their work is applicable worldwide. This large collaborative study has shown that stroke rates are increased by alcohol.