"What is important is the drinking pattern, and not necessarily what the individual is drinking or even the average consumption," said Eric Rimm, associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, who helped conduct the new study. "It's much more beneficial to have about a drink or two a day."

The findings are based on data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a large, ongoing project of the Harvard School of Public Health. The study is tracking the health of 38,077 male health professionals throughout the country while monitoring various aspects of their lifestyles.

The researchers found that after 12 years, study participants who consumed one or two drinks three to seven days a week had a 32- to 37-percent lower risk of suffering a heart attack than non-drinkers. Those who increased their alcohol consumption by one drink a day experienced a 22-percent drop in their heart-attack risk.

"This does suggest that alcohol can be a very important part of a healthy lifestyle," said Rimm.

The study supports previous research that found light and moderate drinking reduces the risk of coronary heart disease by raising the levels of so-called good cholesterol.

"This finally puts some numbers to how often you should drink," said R. Curtis Ellison, a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. "The dangers of that level of drinking are almost zero and the benefits are striking. Everybody should be told the facts and let them make up their own minds. If you drink a lot it's bad for you. If you drink a little it's good for you."

But some stil worry about the message this research sends to the public. "The thing that really concerns me is the fact that we know that people who abuse alcohol are in denial, and people tend to underestimate how much they drink," said medical professor Nicholas Pace, a National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence board member. "I'm not a teetotaler, but one has to be very careful with this kind of thing."

The study's findings are published in the Jan. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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