Health A-Z

Heavy Drinkers at Greater Risk for Stroke

Sept 10, 2012 -- Heavy drinkers may be at a much greater risk for a bleeding stroke, a new study suggests.

People who drank about three or more alcoholic drinks per day also had the strokes almost a decade and a half before those who didn’t drink quite as much. The findings appear in Neurology.

Exactly how heavy drinking may raise risk of this type of stroke is not clear.

The study included 540 French people with an average age of 71 who had a less common type of stroke called an intracerebral hemorrhage. This type of stroke is caused by bleeding in the brain, not a blood clot. 

The people in the study and/or their caregivers or relatives were asked about drinking habits. Fully 25% were heavy drinkers. This was defined as having about three or more drinks per day, or about 1.8 ounces per day of “pure” alcohol.  Participants also had CT scans of their brains, and French researchers reviewed their medical records.

The heavy drinkers were about 60 when they had stroke. By contrast, the people who were not heavy drinkers were about 74 when they had a stroke. The heavy drinkers were also more likely to be smokers and did show some evidence of irregularities in their blood that would make them more likely to have a bleeding stroke.