--- title: Alcohol Might Improve Heart Health By Reducing Your Stress description: A study finds that light to moderate alcohol use has lasting effects on the brain's stress system. canonical: https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/ author: Haley Weiss article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-13T19:40:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:35.420Z article:section: Health og:title: Alcohol Might Improve Heart Health by Reducing Your Stress og:description: A study finds that light-to-moderate drinking has lasting effects on the brain's stress system. og:url: https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol-motto-stock og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alcohol Might Improve Heart Health by Reducing Your Stress twitter:description: A study finds that light-to-moderate drinking has lasting effects on the brain's stress system. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alcohol Might Improve Heart Health by Reducing Your Stress > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Watch: A Legacy of TIME100 Pioneers [Watch (HLS stream): Watch: A Legacy of TIME100 Pioneers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OKBbLLJa.m3u8) (2:56)  _Published 2023-04-12. Billie Eilish, Gregory Robinson and Sandra Oh have all been TIME100 Pioneers—examples of what it takes to be a leader who pioneers new ways of thinking in the world._  by [Haley Weiss](https://time.com/author/haley-weiss/)  ## Haley Weiss Jun 13, 2023 7:40 PM UTC  Molly Cranna for TIME  by [Haley Weiss](https://time.com/author/haley-weiss/)  ## Haley Weiss Jun 13, 2023 7:40 PM UTC Light-to-moderate drinking has long been [linked to better heart health](https://time.com/4709302/alcohol-heart-disease-risk/), but scientists have never been sure why. More clear are the [health risks of alcohol](https://time.com/6248439/no-safe-amount-of-alcohol/), including an increased chance of cancer, neurological aging, and more—so why would alcohol’s effect on the heart be different? Now, in a [new study](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0735109723054256) published in the _Journal of the American College of Cardiology_, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital explained one reason why alcohol might be linked to better heart health: it reduces stress signals in the brain in a sustained way, leading to less of a burden on the heart. First, the scientists looked at data from more than 50,000 people in the Mass General Brigham Biobank, a large research database created by the hospital, and confirmed that light-to-moderate drinking was indeed associated with marked reductions in people’s risk of cardiovascular disease. The large size of the study let them determine that this effect was not caused by people’s socioeconomic statuses, activity levels, or even genetics—factors that are difficult to control for in smaller studies. Something else appeared to be at work, which they discovered by looking at people’s brain scans. These suggested that drinking alcohol eases the brain’s stress levels in a lasting way, which lightens the stress load placed on the heart even days after someone’s last drink. --- ### More from TIME --- **Read More:** [_Is There Really No Safe Amount of Drinking?_](https://time.com/6248439/no-safe-amount-of-alcohol/) The brain’s stress network operates like a game of tug-of-war. On one side is the amygdala, which controls emotions, and on the other is the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive functioning. During times of stress, the amygdala sends out panic signals, and the prefrontal cortex can help block that alarm bell from ringing throughout the whole body—including in the heart. Drinking alcohol is known to ease the amygdala’s alarm effect, says Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, a study author and co-director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “But we asked a different question: Does it have long-lasting effects on those systems?” Looking at brain scans from more than 1,000 study participants, the team discovered that light-to-moderate drinkers experienced an ongoing dampening of activity in the amygdala, while the activity of the prefrontal cortex was normal when alcohol was not in their systems. Though the data didn’t let the researchers see whether or not this effect on the amygdala faded eventually if people stopped drinking entirely, this dampening of the amygdala’s activity was associated with a 22% reduction in cardiovascular disease. When the researchers looked specifically at light-to-moderate drinkers with a history of anxiety—a condition characterized by an overactive stress network—the effect doubled. Rather than the 22% reduction, “people with prior anxiety had a 40% reduction in heart disease,” says Tawakol. “That gave us support for what we found on imaging.” “I know that a lot of people will hear that and say, ‘Well, I’m anxious. That’s why I drink—I guess there’s a benefit,’” he adds. “But there is no safe quantity of alcohol.” There are better ways than alcohol to take advantage of this stress-reducing pathway. One is exercise, which Tawakol is studying now and says increases prefrontal cortex activity rather than decreasing amygdala activity, to the same effect. “A substantial portion of the benefits of exercise can be explained by the brain,” he says. Getting enough sleep works in a similar way, he says. Still, Tawakol’s ultimate goal is to find a pharmacological way to safely reduce activity in the amygdala. “It’s not enough for us to simply say sleep better and exercise more, because we’ve been saying that, and there’s a limited utility,” Tawakol says. “Now that we’ve highlighted a pathway that, when interrupted, doubles the risk reduction of cardiovascular disease, we need to go and find interventions that actually work.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/"},"headline":"Alcohol Might Improve Heart Health by Reducing Your Stress","datePublished":"2023-06-13T19:40:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:35.420Z","description":"A study finds that light-to-moderate drinking has lasting effects on the brain's stress system.","url":"https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/","keywords":["heart health","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Haley Weiss","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/haley-weiss/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2060c899eea79218/698878c9e20a876519a8f085/red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol-motto-stock","caption":"red-wine-bottle-glass-drinking-health-alcohol-motto-stock","creditText":"Molly Cranna for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/heart-health/","name":"heart health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/","name":"Alcohol Might Improve Heart Health by Reducing Your Stress"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch: A Legacy of TIME100 Pioneers","description":"Billie Eilish, Gregory Robinson and Sandra Oh have all been TIME100 Pioneers—examples of what it takes to be a leader who pioneers new ways of thinking in the world.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/OKBbLLJa/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-04-12T12:00:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OKBbLLJa.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/","duration":"PT2M56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6286889/alcohol-heart-health-stress/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```