The risk of a stroke appears to double in the hour after having just one drink — be it wine, beer, or hard liquor — according to a study reported in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association.
However, the researchers noted that moderate alcohol consumption — less than two drinks per day — appears to be protective over the long term, which may outweigh the temporary rise in immediate risk.
“The impact of alcohol on your risk of ischemic stroke appears to depend on how much and how often you drink,” said Dr. Murray Mittleman, senior author of the Stroke Onset Study (SOS) and an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dr. Mittleman and his colleagues interviewed 390 ischemic stroke patients (209 men and 181 women) about three days after their stroke, asking them questions about their lifestyles. They excluded patients who were unable to communicate clearly after being impaired by their stroke.
Fourteen patients had consumed alcohol within one hour of stroke onset. Compared to the times when alcohol wasn’t consumed, the relative risk of stroke was 2.3 times higher in the first hour.
The study found the risk rose 1.6 times in the second hour, and fell by 30 percent after 24 hours.