College-age men and women who drink heavily in college have higher levels of C-reactive proteins (CRP) in the body -- an inflammatory chemical linked to heart disease -- WebMD reported April 19.

Researchers drew blood samples and examined survey answers from a group of 25 college-age subjects and found that those classified as heavy drinkers had higher CRP levels than the moderate drinkers and nondrinkers.

"The take-home message is that if CRP levels are predictive of future risk for cardiovascular disease, then college-aged individuals may be beginning to follow this pattern, which is another reason to be concerned about heavy drinking in college-aged individuals," said lead researcher Elizabeth Donovan of the College of St. Benedict.

The findings will be released at a meeting of the American Heart Association; the group stressed that the small size of the study groups means that followup research is needed to confirm the results.