A drink a day is good for your heart if you are an older man, Danish researchers have said.

A study of 50,000 men aged 50 to 65 found that daily alcohol reduced their risk of coronary disease by more than 40 per cent. However, the research painted a different picture for women of the same age.

A total of 28,448 women and 25,052 men took part in the study, during which 749 women and 1,283 men developed heart disease. The women consumed an average of 5.5 alcoholic drinks a week while men consumed 11.3.

Published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the Danish study found that women who drank alcohol at least one day a week had a lower risk of heart disease compared with those who drank none, suggesting alcohol does have benefits.

But, there were similar levels of reduced risk whether a woman drank on one day or seven - around 35 per cent or 36 per cent.

In contrast, those men who drank every day had a 41 per cent reduced risk compared with those who drank on only one day, who had a 7 per cent reduced risk.

All the participants were monitored for their drinking habits for an average of around six years and factors such as smoking, age and diet were taken into account.

However, in an accompanying BMJ editorial, Annie Britton, a senior lecturer at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, warns of the risks attached to drinking too much alcohol.

She said: "In the UK, levels of consumption have risen by more than 50 per cent in the past 30 years, accompanied by a rise in alcohol related deaths, particularly from liver cirrhosis.

"As a population we are drinking well above the optimum level for health. "The evidence suggests that raising the price and limiting availability of alcohol will reduce the average consumption and the prevalence of harmful consumption.

"Clearly, it would be unwise for doctors to advise non-drinkers to start drinking in an attempt to prevent cardiac disease when there are other strategies, supported by data from clinical trials, that have fewer harmful side effects."

Source:-ITV News