Binge drinking more than triples a man’s risk of dying from a stroke, new research from Korea shows.

Many Koreans drink heavily, Dr. Jae Woong Sull of Yonsei University in Seoul and colleagues note in their report in the journal Stroke; in 2005, 59 percent of adults in Korea reported drinking alcohol, while 46 percent of men were heavy drinkers, meaning they consumed at least six drinks of soju (an alcoholic beverage made from rice) in one sitting at least once a week.

Research has suggested that heavy drinking boosts stroke risk, but most studies have been conducted in white populations, the researchers note. To investigate the association in Asians, they looked at data on 6,392 men and women aged 55 or older who had reported on their drinking habits in 1985.

About one in five of the men were binge drinkers, while less than 1 percent of the women were.

Male binge drinkers who drank daily had a 33 percent increased risk of dying from any cause during the study’s 20-year follow-up compared to men who didn’t drink alcohol.

Their risk of having any type of stroke was nearly doubled, while their risk of a Hemorrhagic stroke - which is caused by bleeding in the brain, rather than blockage in a blood vessel - was 3.39 times greater.

For women, the risk of dying from heart disease was greater among binge drinkers, but the relationship didn’t reach statistical significance.

Because of the small number of female drinkers in the study, as well as the fact that all study participants were 55 and older and resided in an agricultural community, “further studies need to be done to truly understand the risks of binge drinking in the entire population,” the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Stroke, September 2009.