If you keep drinking, the consequences are severe. About half of all alcoholics who keep drinking after developing cardiomyopathy die within four years. The good news is that much of the damage is reversible. When alcoholics with cardiomyopathy abstain from drinking, blood pressure drops and the heart can quickly grow stronger. Best of all, more than 90 percent of them will still be alive four years later.
Most drinkers stop far short of a pint of whiskey or six-pack of beer every day.
That's a good thing, because moderate drinking may be an effective weapon against heart disease. If you drink moderately, in fact, you are 40 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease than nondrinkers are. The federal government defines moderate drinking as up to two drinks a day for men and up to one drink a day for women. The different recommendations reflect the fact that women's bodies break down alcohol more slowly than men's do. Alcohol does several favors for the heart.