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By Michael KahnWed Jan 9, 2:46 AM ET
Drinking is healthy, exercise is healthy, and doing a little of both is even
healthier, Danish researchers reported on Wednesday.
People who neither drink nor exercise have a 30 to 49 percent higher risk of
heart disease than people who do one or both of the activities, the researchers
said in the European Heart Journal.
"The main finding is there seems to be an additional beneficial effect of
drinking one to two drinks per day and doing at least moderate physical
activity," said Morten Gronbaek of the University of Southern Denmark, who led
the study.
Several major studies have found that light to moderate drinking -- up to two
drinks a day on a regular basis -- is associated with a lower risk of heart
disease, and some have also found this leads to a lower risk of some cancers.
But the Danish study, one of the largest of its kind to examine the combined
effect of drinking and exercise, found there were additional protective effects
gained from doing both.
The researchers collected information on the drinking and exercise habits of
nearly 12,000 men and women aged 20 years or older between 1981 and 1983.
Over the next 20 years, some 1,200 of the participants died from heart disease
and about 5,900 died from other causes.
Non-drinkers had a 30 percent to 31 percent higher risk of heart disease
compared to moderate drinkers, no matter the amount of physical activity they
undertook. Moderate consumption was defined as between 1 to 14 drinks per week.
But teetotallers who exercised at least moderately were able to reduce their
risk of heart disease, an important finding for people who abstain because of
religious beliefs or other health issues such as pregnancy, the researchers
said.
People who had the lowest risk of dying from any cause were physically active,
moderate drinkers while those at highest risk were the physically inactive,
heavy drinkers, the study found.