Healthy Drinking
This may be good news for Korean soju companies and soju lovers. It was found on Nov. 6 that three to four glasses of soju reduce stroke (cerebral infarction) risk. It is first time to confirm that not wine or beer, but soju (diluted alcohol) common among Asians helps prevent strokes.
A team led by Dr. Bae Hee-jun at Seoul National University Hospital in Bundang found out this result after conducting a survey of 1,848 patients registered in a database of the Stroke Research Center from 2011 to 2013, and 3,589 people who took part in a national health survey in a similar period. The survey checked their drinking and cerebral infarction risk while taking into consideration age, gender and education level.
Research results suggest that three to four glasses of the drink a day lower males’ stroke risk. Compared to those who do not drink, one glass of soju (10g of alcohol), two glasses of soju, and three to four glasses of soju can scale down stroke risk by 62 percent, 55 percent and 46 percent, respectively. Drink-based stroke prevention effects were the highest when a person drinks one glass or less of soju.
Observing a difference between men and women, men can reduce stroke risk by drinking three to four glasses of soju, but women by one to two glasses. One glass of soju or less found to have the highest stroke prevention effects corresponded to about one third of the patient group and about a half of the comparison group.
A thesis on these results (first author Lee Soo-joo, professor of Euljin University Hospital) was published in the latest edition of Neurology, an official academic journal of The Society for Neuroscience.