A large study of alcohol use by Japanese men and women shows that gender plays a large role in the health benefits and risks associated with drinking, HealthDay News reported July 10.

Researchers found that men who drank heavily had a 19 percent lower risk of death from coronary heart disease but increased their risk of a fatal stroke by 48 percent. Women, on the other hand, increased their risk of dying from heart disease fourfold if they drank heavily and had a 92-percent greater chance of dying from a stroke.

"An amount of alcohol that may be beneficial for men is not good for women at all," said study co-author Hiroyasu Iso of Osaka University in Osaka, Japan.

Light drinking was related to a 17-percent decrease in heart disease mortality among women. But moderate drinking raised the risk of heart disease 45 percent among females. Some of the findings may be skewed by the fact that there are social taboos against Japanese women drinking when they get older, however.

The study appears in the July 11, 2008 issue of the journal Stroke.