Previous studies have suggested that keeping your alcohol consumption somewhere between 12 and 25 units per week could be good be relatively good for your health, but a new piece of research that has been published in the BMJ has brought some opposing evidence to light.

After gathering data from over 250,000 participants across 56 studies, it was concluded that light drinkers can reduce their risk of contracting coronary heart disease by cutting down their alcohol consumption even further.

The message is clear, said the professors who led the study, that the less you drink the better.

Participants who have a genetic variant of the alcohol dehydrogenase 1B gene – who tend to consume less alcohol on average, because the gene can cause an involuntary unpleasant reaction to boozy substances – were recorded as having, on average, a 10% lower risk of heart disease.

Subjects who had that gene also had lower blood pressure and, typically, a lower body mass index as well.

“The best thing to do is to reduce consumption,” said the study’s lead author Juan Casas. “We expect that these findings will help to simplify policymaking about alcohol consumption.

“There was this issue about [whether] low to moderate consumption was good for your heart. This study shows that this is simply not the case.”

Casas, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, stated that other studies which had provided opposing conclusions had failed to take into account other factors, such as genetics, that were associated with low-to-moderate drinking.

“Given that this is the first time we show findings that challenge the status quo, we are conscious that we will need replication,” he said, evidently aware that despite the study’s size, further investigations will need to be carried out to either support or disprove the findings.

The discovery has been welcomed by other academics, health advocated and campaigners.