This article was written by Julianne Wyrick.

February is American Heart Month. Sponsored by the American Heart Association, American Heart Month is a time to battle cardiovascular disease and educate people on what they can do to live heart-healthy lives. Heart disease, including stroke, is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States.

How much do you know about the condition of your heart? Heart health awareness typically focuses on heart disease in older adults caused by an unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise. But what if you could be at risk for cardiac arrest and sudden death even though you are young and in shape?

Image credit: Heart arrhythmia via Shutterstock

A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that even moderate alcohol consumption — as little as one-half to one drink per day — increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by about 15% [1]. Daily consumption of two or more drinks per day (where a “drink” contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol, and results are independent of the type of drink consumed) increases breast cancer risk by 50%. These results suggest a much stronger effect of low to moderate alcohol consumption on lifetime breast cancer risk than previous studies [2-4] have done.

New research suggests that the intensity of exercise might be more important than the quantity in helping to prevent death from heart disease and other causes.

In a study presented last week at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2011, scientists described new research that examined the relationship between exercise duration, exercise intensity, and total risk of death [1]. Lead researcher Peter Schnohr of Copenhagen, Denmark explained that both male and female cyclists had a decreased total risk of death if they cycled vigorously (by their own perception), but that cycling duration didn’t show a similar protective effect.

A number of studies have asserted that moderate drinking has a positive benefit on cardiovascular health. Now, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have discovered how alcohol consumption can help to prevent heart disease. The research, published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, studied the effects of moderate amounts of alcohol in human coronary artery smooth muscle cells and in the carotid arteries of mice [1]. In both cases, regular, limited amounts of alcohol inhibited a protein called Notch 1 and prevented the buildup of smooth muscle cells in blood vessels that leads to the narrowing of the arteries and can put you at risk for a heart attack or stroke.

According to a study in the February 15 edition of the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, abnormal heart rate turbulence is associated with an increased risk of heart disease death in otherwise older, low-risk individuals [1]. Additional studies need to be done in order to understand whether this potential biomarker will be a clinically valuable tool.