Women and Alcohol: Limitations in the Cardiovascular Guidelines

Patients and physicians rely on evidence-based guidelines to guide alcohol consumption recom-mendations, but significant discrepancies in alcohol consumption limits are found between different inter-national societies. Current American Heart Associa-tion (AHA) preventive management guidelines on hypertension, transient ischemic attack, stroke, and stable ischemic heart disease recommend sex-specific daily alcohol consumption limits which are inconsis-tent from other international society recommenda-tions. In this focused review of current American Heart Association guidelines and their sources, we evaluate the evidence behind sex-specific alcohol con-sumption cut-offs. We 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. (Curr Probl Cardiol 2023;48:101200.)