Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

Drinking two or more alcoholic beverages daily may damage the heart of elderly people, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging. The study correlated weekly alcohol consumption among 4,466 people -- average age 76 -- to the size, structure and motion of various parts of the heart. 
  
 Researchers found: 
  
 The more people drank, the greater the subtle changes to the heart's structure and function. 
  
 Among men, drinking more than 14 alcoholic beverages weekly (heavy drinking) was linked with enlargement of the wall of the heart's main pumping chamber (left ventricular mass). 
  
 Among women, moderate drinkers had small reductions in heart function. 
  
 "Women appear more susceptible than men to the cardiotoxic effects of alcohol, which might potentially contribute to a higher risk of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, for any given level of alcohol intake," said Scott Solomon, M.D., senior author of the study and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of noninvasive cardiology at Brigham and Women's in Boston. 
  
 Previous research has shown that light to moderate drinking may protect against some cardiovascular disease, while heavy drinking has been linked with a higher risk for cardiomyopathy -- in which the heart muscle becomes larger, thicker, more rigid, or is replaced by scar tissue. 
  
 "In spite of potential benefits of low alcohol intake, our findings highlight the possible hazards to cardiac structure and function by increased amounts of alcohol consumption in the elderly, particularly among women. This reinforces the U.S. recommendations stating that those who drink should do so with moderation," said Alexandra Gonçalves, M.D.; Ph.D., lead author of the study and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Brigham and Women's in Boston. 
  
 Moderate drinking is generally defined as two drinks a day (beer, wine or liquor) for men and one drink a day for women. The American Heart Association guidelines and 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting alcohol intake to up to one drink a day for women and up to two for men. ||||| Having a drink or two a day might be good for the heart when you're young, but even just a couple of drinks a day may damage your heart when you start to become elderly, a new study shows. 
  
 Women are especially vulnerable to the effects of even a few drinks, the researchers report in the journal Circulation. In both men and women, a couple of drinks a day tended to affect the heart's structure, making it work less efficiently. 
  
 "Women seem to be more sensitive than men to the toxic effects of alcohol on cardiac function, developing alcoholic cardiomyopathy with a lower total lifetime dose of alcohol compared with men," Dr. Scott Solomon of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and colleagues wrote. 
  
 "Women seem to be more sensitive than men to the toxic effects of alcohol on cardiac function." 
  
 "We found that increasing alcohol intake in among the elderly is associated with mild alterations in cardiac structure and function." 
  
 For their study, Solomon's team surveyed 4,466 people with an average age of 76. They all underwent heart scans, also. 
  
 About half of them said they didn't drink at all. The team defined one drink as 14 grams of ethanol, which is about a 5 ounce glass of wine, a bit more than a 12-ounce serving of beer or just under an ounce-and-a-half of spirits. 
  
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 Alcohol seemed to most affect the left ventricle, which is the pumping chamber of the heart. The more people drank, the more their heart's structure and function changed. 
  
 Light to moderate drinking is supposed to be healthful, although alcohol is known to be toxic to the heart. Heavy drinking clearly damages the heart, making heart muscles thicker and more rigid. 
  
 The American Heart Association guidelines and 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting alcohol to about one drink a day for women and up to two for men. 
  
 Why can women drink less safely? "Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently than men, and women seem to be more sensitive than men to the toxic effects of alcohol on cardiac function, developing alcoholic cardiomyopathy with a lower total lifetime dose of alcohol compared with men," the researchers noted. 
  
 Another study published earlier this year showed that middle-aged people who drink more than moderately have a higher stroke risk. ||||| TIME Health For more, visit TIME Health 
  
 For decades, there’s been a steady line of literature welcomed by anyone who enjoys a regular drink or two: that moderate drinking can actually protect you from having a heart attack by keeping your vessels clear and relatively plaque-free. But there’s another set of data that shows too much alcohol can start to poison the heart. So where does the line between good-for-you and bad-for-you lie? 
  
 Researchers led by Dr. Scott Solomon, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of non-invasive cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and his colleagues provide some clues Tuesday in their latest report in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging. The scientists combed through data collected from 4,466 elderly people about their alcohol consumption. They also agreed to echocardiograms of their hearts. Solomon wanted to see if there were any changes in the structure of the heart that had anything to do with how much the volunteers reported they drank each week. 
  
 MORE: Should Alcohol Be Forced to List Calories? 
  
 The not-so-good news: The more the participants drank, the more likely they showed abnormal changes in their heart structure and function. In men, the changes started accumulating after more than two drinks per day, or 14 or more drinks a week. In these men, the pumping chambers of their hearts increased slightly compared to those in non drinkers, a sign that the heart had to work harder to pump the same amount of blood, which can cause it enlarge and weaken. In women, these changes appeared when women drank much less, just above the one drink a day. In addition, among the women who imbibed more than a drink a day, the scientists found slight drops in heart function compared to women who drank less. 
  
 “A little bit of alcohol may be beneficial, but too much is clearly going to be toxic,” says Solomon. “Once you get beyond two drinks a day in men, you get into the realm where you start to see subtle evidence of cardiotoxic effects on the heart that might over the long term lead to problems. And that threshold might be lower in women.” 
  
 The study provides valuable information about how alcohol affects the heart, and how much alcohol exposure can trigger changes to the heart’s structure and more importantly, how it functions. But where the tipping point lies with each individual between the benefits and harms of a having a few drinks isn’t clear yet. More studies investigating which genetic factors may predispose people, and in particular women, to the toxic effects of alcohol will need to done before more refined advice about how much is too much can be discussed. 
  
 Those investigations might start with potential differences in the way men and women process alcohol. The effects Solomon and his team saw remained strong even after they adjusted for body mass index, and other studies have hinted, for example, that the different hormone environments in men and women might be responsible for the increased vulnerability of women’s heart tissues to the toxic effects of alcohol. 
  
 Future work may also delve deeper into the question of how long people drink; like any exposure, the effects of alcohol may also be cumulative. Because the participants in the study were relatively elderly, with an average age of 76, their heart changes reflected decades of exposure to alcohol but it’s not clear whether there is a threshold for when the harmful effects dominate over the potentially beneficial ones. 
  
 “What is clear is that at more than two drinks a day is the point at which we start to think we are beyond the safe level for men, and with women, it’s likely to be even lower than that,” says Solomon. 
  
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The elderly might want to lay off the alcohol, based on a new study that describes the serious consequences of just one or two drinks per day. Harvard Medical School researchers surveyed 4,466 people with an average age of 76 who also underwent heart scans, and found minimal alcohol intake actually changed the structure of the heart in both men and women, NBC News reports. The small change made the heart less efficient, and its structure and function suffered greater changes the more people drank. Women were found to be especially vulnerable to alcohol's effects, "which might potentially contribute to a higher risk of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, for any given level of alcohol intake," says lead author Scott Solomon, per Science Daily. Cardiomyopathy involves the heart muscle becoming thick and rigid, or replaced by scar tissue. The left ventricle of the heart, or the pumping chamber, was hardest hit by alcohol and the ventricular wall became enlarged in men who consumed more than two drinks per day; for women, the changes were evident among those who drank just more than one drink daily. This suggests the heart was working in overdrive; such a pace could cause the heart to enlarge and weaken over time, reports Time. "A little bit of alcohol may be beneficial, but too much is clearly going to be toxic," a researcher says. Additional studies will determine whether genetic factors play a role in a person's susceptibility. "What is clear is that at more than two drinks a day is the point at which we start to think we are beyond the safe level for men, and with women, it’s likely to be even lower than that," Solomon tells Time. (Drinking more could also boost your stroke risk.)