Women and alcohol: Limitations in the cardiovascular guidelines

Patients and physicians rely on evidence-based guidelines to guide alcohol consumption recommendations, but significant discrepancies in alcohol consumption limits are found between different international societies. Current American Heart Association (AHA) preventive management guidelines on hypertension, transient ischemic attack, stroke, and stable ischemic heart disease recommend sex-specific daily alcohol consumption limits which are inconsistent from other international society recommendations.
In a focused review of current AHA guidelines and their sources, researchers evaluate the evidence behind sex-specific alcohol consumption cut-offs. They found insufficient experimental and epidemiologic evidence to conclude that women should have a reduced daily alcohol consumption limit as compared to men; further studies are required to determine whether sex-specific differences exist in alcohol metabolism and its related cardiovascular impact.
Source: Chang (Nancy) Wang, Kiera Liblik, Sohaib Haseeb, Ricardo Lopez-Santi, Adrian Baranchuk, Women and Alcohol: Limitations in the Cardiovascular Guidelines, Current Problems in Cardiology, 2022, 101200, ISSN 0146-2806, doi.org/10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101200.