Heavy drinking by college students may raise their risk of various heart problems later in life according to the results of a new study.
According to research, students who regularly drank to excess had above-normal levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a blood marker for systemic inflammation long linked to cardiovascular illness.
Elizabeth Donovan study co-author stated:
Students need to realize there may be negative effects of the way they drink in college later in life.
But if C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are predictive of future risk for cardiovascular disease twenty or thirty years down the road, then it appears college-age individuals may be beginning this dangerous pattern which is a clear reason to be concerned about heavy drinking.
The research team defined a low risk of cardiac disease in a person as them having less than 1 milligram of CRP per liter of blood, as defined by the American Heart Association.
The team attained surveys from 25 college students relating to their drinking and smoking habits, medication use and issues regarding any weight loss tactics that they had used.
The team found that heavy drinkers had an average CRP level of 1.25 MGa fact that puts them at a moderately increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease later in life. On the other end moderate drinkers fell into the low-risk group, with CRP averaging just 0.58 milligrams/liter.
Students who were overweight had an increased level of CRP in their blood. Students who ate relatively high levels of fruits and vegetables had lower CRP levels than those who did not, the researchers found.
“I don’t think this study is enough to say for sure whether cardiovascular disease risk goes up for young people who drink heavily,” concluded Donovan.
Drinking alcohol excessively increases such dangers as alcoholism, high blood pressure, obesity, stroke, breast cancer, suicide and accidents.
The new findings presented at the American Heart Association’s 8th Annual Conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, as well as Vascular Biology.
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