Ethanol and the Cardiovascular System: Friend or Enemy?

Alcohol as an old drug and popular beverage has attracted human interest since the beginning
of the recorded history. However, in all societies concurrent with alcohol consumption,
scientific debates on its risks and benefits have also been generated and continue to this date
((Kloner and Rezkalla,2007). Because of the major role of cardiovascular disease (CAD) in
mortality rates
(30% of all global death in 2008, according to the World Health Organization report), the
association between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular system disease has attracted
more attention from researchers. A large body of studies carried out over the past decades
have repeatedly supported a J-shaped curve association between alcohol intake and the
relative risk of developing cardiovascular system disease: it was found that at light-tomoderate levels of alcohol intake the risk was lower, but it increased at higher doses (Kloner
and Rezkalla,2007 ;Lucas et al.,2005). Recent epidemiologic studies have indicated that
light-to-moderate amounts of ethanol reduce cardiov