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Observational studies suggest that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption may be protective against cardiovascular disease, but the findings could be due to residual confounding or selection bias. Can the lack of evidence from randomized trials be overcome by a genetic approach? Researchers in a large, international collaboration conducted a Mendelian randomization meta-analysis of associations between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular biomarkers and events. The meta-analysis covered 56 epidemiological studies with data on a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, rs1229984) in the alcohol dehydrogenase 1B gene (ADH1B), which encodes the ADH1B enzyme accounting for much of the ethanol metabolic pathway.
The rs1229984 variant, which has been…