Moderate drinking benefit people with some cardiovascular disease than non-drinkers, a study said.

Umberto Benedetto, a cardiac surgeon at the University of Rome La Sapienza found that people who drank in moderation, but regularly had less heart disease than teetotalers. The study was presented at the November 14 meeting of the American Heart Association.

The study found that people who had surgery, but drank in moderation had 11 to 39 percent lesser chance of encountering a stroke or another heart attack than teetotalers. The study covered four fifths of 1,221 people who were recrutied for the research.

The optimal alcohol intake in the men was about two drinks per day, said Benedetto.

“We find that some people stop drinking after surgery, since they believe it might be dangerous,” said Benedetto.

“Maybe the message of this study is that patients … who drink a little should not be discouraged” from continuing after bypass surgery.” Some experts say that they don't encourage moderate drinkers to stop.

“But for individuals that don’t drink, I don’t encourage them to start,” Cardiologist Erin Michos of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said. “Up to two drinks per day can’t be weighted over a week as ten in one sitting.”