News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Drinking half a pint every day can help prevent heart failure, research reveals.

Scientists have found seven alcoholic drinks over a week cut the risk by a fifth in men and 16% in women.

A drink was defined as one containing 14 grams of alcohol, which is about half a pint of beer, a small glass of wine or a shot of whisky or vodka.

Heart failure affects around 900,000 people in the UK. It happens when the heart is too weak to pump blood around the body efficiently.

Researchers who studied 15,000 people over 25 years.

After taking into account factors such as age, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, physical activity and smoking, they found men in the “up to seven” drinks group had a 20% lower risk of developing heart failure than men who did not drink at all.

For women consuming the same amount each week, the risk was reduced by 16%.

900,000 Amount of people heart disease affects in the UK

For both men and women consuming the most amount of alcohol (14 or more drinks a week), the risk of heart failure was not significantly different compared to the risk for abstainers.

But researchers warned that heavy alcohol use increases the risk of death from all causes.

Researchers divided everyone into abstainers, former drinkers and those who consumed up to seven, seven to 14, 14 to 21 or 21 or more drinks a week.

Heart failure was least likely to be seen in those having up to seven alcoholic drinks a week and most likely to develop in former drinkers.

US lead researcher Prof Scott Solomon, of Harvard Medical School, said: “These findings suggest that drinking alcohol in moderation does not contribute to an increased risk of heart failure and may even be protective.

“No level of alcohol intake was associated with a higher risk of heart failure. However, heavy alcohol use is certainly a risk factor for deaths from any cause.

“The people who were classified as former drinkers at the start of the study had a higher risk of developing heart failure and of death from any cause when compared with abstainers.

"This could be related to the reasons why they had stopped drinking in the first place, for instance because they had already developed health problems that might have made them more likely to go on to develop heart failure.”