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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		How do dry counties fare when it comes to heart disease?
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2017-02-15 18:00:00
	Description:		If alcohol was not as readily available, would people's hearts be healthier? To find out, cardiologist Gregory Marcus of the University of California, San Francisco, looked to the state of Texas. "We leveraged the fact that in Texas some counties don't allow access to alcohol, at least purchase of alcohol, and others counties do." Since alcohol consumption is linked to cardiovascular disease, Marcus wanted to see if being in a dry county would affect the number of atrial fibrillation cases. This is the most common abnormal heart rhythm, which can cause stroke. "And what we found in wet counties, meaning where there was no restriction on alcohol sale, that the prevalence and development of atrial fibrillation was more common than in the counties that prohibited sales of alcohol. At the same time we found that those wet counties also had less heart attacks or less myocardial infractions." Marcus’ findings show that different people respond differently to alcohol. So if you’re wondering if your heart would benefit from moderate drinking, you should first find out if you’re at risk of developing heart disease.
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