His is according to research by Italian and Austrian scientists who published their findings in the current issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association . "Regular consumption of more than 100 grams of alcohol per day emerged as a prominent risk factor for early development of deposits that clog the arteries," according to Dr Stefan Keichl of the Department of Neurology at Innsbruck University Hospital in Austria. "We found that it even surpassed the effects of heavy smoking as a risk factor for stroke." The researcher also found that light drinkers, those having one or two drinks a day, were at lower risk of stroke than heavy drinkers or abstainers. This matches similar studies which suggested that light drinking lowered risk of heart attack compared to abstainers.