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Query: UMLS:C0038454 (stroke)
 147,016 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

There is considerable debate about the association between individual socio-economic status, community socio-economic status and health. The current study examines individual data from a case-control study of stroke (n = 3489) conducted in Auckland, New Zealand. The study sought to identify whether individual socio-economic status (as measured by income from lifetime occupation) and community socio-economic status (measured in a number of ways) predicts the onset of stroke both independently and after controlling for individual risk factors (e.g., smoking, obesity and hypertension). Logistic regression results show that individual socio-economic status and all of the community socio-economic status measures predict the onset of stroke before controlling for individual risk factors. However, there is a high correlation between the various measures of community socio-economic status. Stepwise regression results suggest that average household income is the measure of community-level socio-economic status with the greatest predictive power. The results suggest that individual income and average household income are significant predictors of onset of stroke both independently and after controlling for behavioural and medical risk factors. Logistic regression analysis of the pathway suggests that individual income is a significant predictor of smoking and obesity, and that community socio-economic status is a significant predictor of heart disease, heavy drinking, diabetes, smoking and obesity.
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PMID:Individual socio-economic status, community socio-economic status and stroke in New Zealand: a case control study. 1597 Feb 29

Epidemiological studies of middle-aged populations generally find the relationship between alcohol intake and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke to be either U- or J-shaped. This review describes the extent that these relationships are likely to be causal, and the extent that they may be due to specific methodological weaknesses in epidemiological studies. The consistency in the vascular benefit associated with moderate drinking (compared with non-drinking) observed across different studies, together with the existence of credible biological pathways, strongly suggests that at least some of this benefit is real. However, because of biases introduced by: choice of reference categories; reverse causality bias; variations in alcohol intake over time; and confounding, some of it is likely to be an artefact. For heavy drinking, different study biases have the potential to act in opposing directions, and as such, the true effects of heavy drinking on vascular risk are uncertain. However, because of the known harmful effects of heavy drinking on non-vascular mortality, the problem is an academic one. Studies of the effects of alcohol consumption on health outcomes should recognise the methodological biases they are likely to face, and design, analyse and interpret their studies accordingly. While regular moderate alcohol consumption during middle-age probably does reduce vascular risk, care should be taken when making general recommendations about safe levels of alcohol intake. In particular, it is likely that any promotion of alcohol for health reasons would do substantially more harm than good.
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PMID:Effect of alcohol on risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: causality, bias, or a bit of both? 1732 30

Disparities in associations of alcohol consumption to various cardiovascular conditions lead to separate consideration of several. These include (1) Alcoholic cardiomyopathy from chronic heavy drinking in susceptible persons. (2) Higher blood pressure (hypertension) in some heavier drinkers. (3) A relation of drinking to higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke but to lower risk of ischemic stroke. (4) Certain arrhythmias, especially among binge drinkers. (5) An inverse relation of alcohol use to coronary artery disease. A causal hypothesis of protection is strengthened by plausible mechanisms. The coronary disease data impact upon total mortality statistics, such that lighter drinkers are at slightly lower risk than abstainers of death within a given time period. (6) An inverse relation of drinking to type 2 (adult onset) diabetes mellitus in several recent studies. Because of close relations to cardiovascular disorders, diabetes is considered virtual cardiovascular "equivalent". (7) Composites of (1-6) result in a complex association between alcohol and the common heart failure syndrome. International comparisons suggest wine is more protective against coronary disease than liquor or beer. Reports of antioxidants, endothelial relaxants, and antithrombotic activity in wine (especially red) support hypothetical benefit from non-alcohol wine components. However, prospective population studies show apparent protection from beer, wine, or liquor. Thus, some suggest that favorable traits or drinking patterns of wine drinkers might explain the international comparison findings. Amount of alcohol taken is a crucial consideration in alcohol-health relations. Advice to concerned persons needs to take into account individual risk/benefit factors in drinkers or potential drinkers.
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PMID:Alcohol, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. 1736 63

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between alcohol consumption and the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS), type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and overall cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a Mediterranean cohort. It consisted of a cross-sectional analysis of a representative sample of Greek adults (n = 4,153) classified as never, occasional, mild, moderate, or heavy drinkers. Cases with overt CHD, stroke, or PAD were recorded. In our population, 17% were never, 23% occasional, 27% mild, 24% moderate, and 9% heavy drinkers. Moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower trend for the prevalence of the MetS (P = .0001), DM (P < .0001), CHD (P = .0002), PAD (P = .005), and overall CVD (P = .001) but not stroke compared with no alcohol use. Heavy drinking was associated with an increase in the prevalence of all of these disease states. Wine consumption was associated with a slightly better effect than beer or spirits consumption on the prevalence of total CVD, and beer consumption was associated with a better effect than spirits consumption. Alcohol intake was positively related with body weight, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and hypertension. Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a lower prevalence of the MetS, DM, PAD, CHD, and overall CVD but not stroke compared with no alcohol use in a Mediterranean population. Heavy drinking was associated with an increase in the prevalence of all of these disease states. Advice on alcohol consumption should probably mainly aim at reducing heavy drinking.
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PMID:Association of drinking pattern and alcohol beverage type with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease in a Mediterranean cohort. 1821 78

Although alcohol drinking increases blood pressure and heavy drinking has been associated with alcoholic cardiomyopathy, little is known about the association between light to moderate drinking and risk of heart failure (HF) in hypertensive subjects. Thus, the association between light to moderate drinking and incident HF in 5,153 hypertensive male physicians who were free of stroke, myocardial infarction, or major cancers at baseline was prospectively examined. Alcohol consumption was self-reported and classified as <1, 1 to 4, 5 to 7, and >or=8 drinks/week. HF was ascertained using follow-up questionnaires and validated using Framingham criteria. Average age was 58 years, and about 70% of subjects consumed 1 to 7 drinks/week. A total of 478 incident HF cases occurred in this cohort during follow-up. Compared with subjects consuming <1 drink/week, hazard ratios for HF were 0.89 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70 to 1.12), 0.72 (95% CI 0.57 to 0.91), and 0.38 (95% CI 0.20 to 0.72) for alcohol consumption of 1 to 4, 5 to 7, and >or=8 drinks/week after adjustment for age, body mass index, smoking, randomization group, use of multivitamins, vegetable consumption, breakfast cereal, exercise, and history of atrial fibrillation, respectively (p for trend <0.001). Similar results were obtained for subjects with HF with and without antecedent myocardial infarction and those without diabetes mellitus. In conclusion, our data suggested that light to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower risk of HF in hypertensive male physicians.
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PMID:Alcohol consumption and heart failure in hypertensive US male physicians. 1872 18

Several observational follow-up studies about cardiovascular health have found an overlap between moderate drinking and lower mortality from coronary heart disease and other causes. However, such studies have serious methodological limitations. Most non-drinkers were in fact ex-drinkers, that is, people who had had to stop drinking for health reasons. Other variables that may play a decisive role in cardiovascular risk, such as tobacco smoking, exercise and body mass index, were not evaluated, and changes in drinking habits were not assessed periodically. Due to the methodological limitations of these studies, the findings suggest a statistical association but not a causality relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and lower risk of mortality. Furthermore, numerous studies have shown that excessive drinking can cause not only cardiovascular diseases--such as hypertension, arrhythmias, dilated cardiomyopathy and stroke--but also other medical and psychiatric disorders. Alcohol clearly has addictive properties that can contribute to the development of heavy drinking in some people, leading to alcohol-related physical and mental disorders. The public health message should emphasize the potential risk of heavy drinking rather than promote the possible benefits of moderate consumption. A simplistic message that alcohol is good for cardiovascular health may be prejudicial when stated outside the context of the possible adverse consequences of heavy drinking.
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PMID:Is alcohol really good for health? 1881 69

Alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse or harmful use cause substantial morbidity and mortality. Alcohol-use disorders are associated with depressive episodes, severe anxiety, insomnia, suicide, and abuse of other drugs. Continued heavy alcohol use also shortens the onset of heart disease, stroke, cancers, and liver cirrhosis, by affecting the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and immune systems. Heavy drinking can also cause mild anterograde amnesias, temporary cognitive deficits, sleep problems, and peripheral neuropathy; cause gastrointestinal problems; decrease bone density and production of blood cells; and cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcohol-use disorders complicate assessment and treatment of other medical and psychiatric problems. Standard criteria for alcohol dependence-the more severe disorder-can be used to reliably identify people for whom drinking causes major physiological consequences and persistent impairment of quality of life and ability to function. Clinicians should routinely screen for alcohol disorders, using clinical interviews, questionnaires, blood tests, or a combination of these methods. Causes include environmental factors and specific genes that affect the risk of alcohol-use disorders, including genes for enzymes that metabolise alcohol, such as alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase; those associated with disinhibition; and those that confer a low sensitivity to alcohol. Treatment can include motivational interviewing to help people to evaluate their situations, brief interventions to facilitate more healthy behaviours, detoxification to address withdrawal symptoms, cognitive-behavioural therapies to avoid relapses, and judicious use of drugs to diminish cravings or discourage relapses.
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PMID:Alcohol-use disorders. 1941 Jul 5

Most world populations consume alcoholic beverages. Ethanol may have both protective and harmful effects on health depending on the amount and way of consumption. An extensive body of data shows concordant J or U-shaped associations between alcohol intake and a variety of adverse health outcomes, including coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure, stroke, and all-cause mortality. In particular, moderate ethanol consumption is associated with cardioprotective benefits such as lower cardiovascular risk and mortality, probably mediated by beneficial effects on inflammation, lipids, and coagulation. In contrast, binge and/or heavy drinking results in proportional worsening of outcomes, increasing cardiovascular events and mortality. This harmful effect has been recently associated with the blockade of ischemic preconditioning mediated by high doses of ethanol. In this review, we highlight the recent epidemiological and experimental evidences regarding the specific benefits and risks of ethanol in the setting of ischemic heart disease.
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PMID:[Association between ethanol intake and ischemic heart disease]. 1920 41

With respect to cardiovascular disorders, epidemiologic studies support the hypothesis of increased risks among heavy alcohol drinkers and indicate a lower risk among lighter drinkers. Increased cardiovascular risks of heavy drinking include cardiomyopathy, systemic hypertension, supraventricular arrhythmias, hemorrhagic stroke and heart failure that is not associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). Light-to-moderate drinking is probably unrelated to increased risk of any cardiovascular condition and is related to lower risks of CAD, ischemic stroke and CAD-related heart failure. A protective alcohol-CAD hypothesis is supported by plausible biological mechanisms attributable to ethyl alcohol. Possible nonalcohol beneficial components in wine (especially red) could explain the extra protection of wine, but a healthier pattern of drinking or more favorable risk traits in wine drinkers may also be involved. Advice regarding the advisability of alcohol drinking for health needs to be individualized according to specific risks and benefits.
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PMID:Alcohol and cardiovascular diseases. 1941 57

The substantial medical risks of heavy alcohol drinking as well as the probable existence of a less harmful or safe drinking limit have been evident for centuries. Modern epidemiology studies suggest lowered risk of morbidity and mortality among lighter drinkers. Thus, defining "heavy" drinking as > or =3 standard drinks per day, the alcohol-mortality relationship is a J-curve with risk highest for heavy drinkers, lowest for light drinkers and intermediate for abstainers. A number of non-cardiovascular and cardiovascular problems contribute to the increased mortality risk of heavier drinkers. The lower risk of light drinkers is due mostly to lower risk of the most common cardiovascular condition, coronary heart disease (CHD). These disparate relationships of alcoholic drinking to various cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular conditions constitute a modern concept of alcohol and health. Increased cardiovascular risks of heavy drinking include: (1) alcoholic cardiomyopathy, (2) systemic hypertension (high blood pressure), (3) heart rhythm disturbances, and (4) hemorrhagic stroke. Lighter drinking is not clearly related to increased risk of any cardiovascular condition and, in observational studies, is related to lower risk of CHD, ischemic stroke, and diabetes mellitus. A protective hypothesis for CHD is supported by evidence for plausible biological mechanisms attributable to ethyl alcohol. International comparisons and some prospective study data suggest that wine is more protective against CHD than liquor or beer. Possible non-alcohol beneficial components in wine (especially red) support possible extra protection by wine, but a healthier pattern of drinking or more favorable risk traits in wine drinkers may be involved.
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PMID:Alcohol and cardiovascular health. 2004 9


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