Italian researchers have revealed that moderate drinking has a protective effect on all-cause mortality, and not only coronary heart disease, but they warn that heavy drinking raises the risk of death.

The scientists defined moderate drinking as two to four drinks a day for men; one to two drinks for women.

Augusto Di Castelnuovo, Sc.D., of the Catholic University of Campobasso, and colleagues say that anything beyond this limit is heavy drinking.

¡°Our data show that consumption of little amounts of alcohol leads to a reduction of mortality up to 18%. But after a certain number of glasses things radically change: who drinks too much not only looses this advantage, but increases his own risk of death in relation to the amount of alcohol consumed," says Augusto.

Previous studies have shown an inverse relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and coronary heart disease, Di Castelnuovo and colleagues said, but this is the first to show a similar effect for all-cause mortality.

The study also shows very important differences between men and women. Whereas men report a beneficial effect after consuming 2-4 doses maximum (a dose refers to one glass of wine or beer), women should be aware that for them, the protection guaranteed from alcohol consumption disappears just after two glasses a day.

"It might be a fact linked to the metabolism. We know that women metabolize alcohol in a different way and the blood concentration reaches higher levels. Therefore, consuming more than two doses might lead to several harmful effects, such as liver diseases or increased risk of certain forms of tumor," says Licia Iacoviello, Head of the Laboratory of Genetic and Environmental Epidemiology, where the research has been performed.

The study is published in the American journal Archives of Internal Medicine.