New Danish research has supported previous study findings which point to the benefits to the heart of physical activity and small amounts of alcohol.

Data on 11,914 male and female participants was gathered and analysed for the Copenhagen City Heart Study conducted by the National Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark. During a follow-up averaging twenty years, 1,242 people died from heart disease and 5,901 died from other causes.

Physical activity was associated with a lower risk of heart disease among both men and women, as was moderate alcohol consumption. Heavy drinkers and non-drinkers displayed the same likelihood of dying from heart disease.

Differing combinations of activity and alcohol consumption levels had various effects. Physically active people who had at least one drink a week, for example, displayed a 44 to 50 per cent lower risk of dying from heart disease than their non-drinking but physically active counterparts. In fact, physically active individuals who had a drink each week were found to have a 33 per cent lower risk of developing any terminal condition.

The researchers, led by Morten Gronbaek, director of research at the National Institute, said, ‘”Physical activity and a moderate alcohol intake can lower the risk of fatal heart disease and all-cause mortality. But neither physical activity alone nor alcohol intake can completely reverse the increased risk associated with physical inactivity and alcohol abstention. Thus, both physical activity and alcohol intake are important to lower the risk of fatal heart disease and all-cause mortality’.

Dr David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Centre at Yale University School of Medicine said that the research backed up the findings of numerous previous studies; ‘The key messages of this study, based on a large cohort, are reaffirmations of what we already know, not revelations. Moderate alcohol intake reduces the risk of heart disease. Moderate physical activity does so, too, and even more powerfully. Combine the two, and the benefits are additive’ he said.

We’ll drink to that!