A new study appeared today online, revealing astonishing facts about alcohol’s impact on heart. It was shown that chances of preventing heart disease and stroke may depend on people’s gender and on the quantity they drink.

80,000 Japanese men and women’s drinking patterns were attentively analyzed for a 14-year-period. Before the study, none of them had undergone cancer, stroke or cardiovascular problems.

Men who drank alcohol very much (at least 46 grams, which means about four or more alcoholic drinks per day) had a 19 percent lower risk of die from coronary heart disease than men who didn’t consume alcohol. Still, these heavy drinkers also had a 48 percent higher risk of dying from all kind of stroke.

As far as women are concerned, the ones who drank heavily had a 92 percent increased risk of death from stroke. Among women, light drinking (less than 23 grams of alcohol or roughly two beverages a day) was associated with a 17 percent lower risk of death caused by heart disease, but moderate drinking (between 23 grams and 46 grams per day) was connected with a higher risk of 45 percent. Previous reports disclosed the fact that light to moderate alcohol use could be linked to a lower risk of heart disease in women.

An amount of alcohol that may be beneficial for men is not good for women at all," A co-author of the study, Dr. Hiroyasu Iso, professor of public health at Osaka University in Japan, stated in an American Heart Association news release that a quantity of alcohol which may have positive effects on men can jeopardize women.