Students might want to think twice before having that extra drink -- new research suggests that heavy drinking in college may take a toll on the heart.

In a small study Minnesota researchers found that a group of college students who drank heavily had higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a blood marker for inflammation that can increase the risk for heart disease. Increased CRP placed heavy drinkers at moderate risk for cardiovascular disease in early adulthood, according to an American Heart Association press release.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a study that looks at the impact of college students' drinking on their later life," Linda LaSalle, community health educator at University Health Services (UHS), said. "The study shows that drinking can have a substantial, direct impact on students' health later in life."

CRP is a substance released into the body as a result of inflammation occurring, Ann Shallcross, a clinician at UHS, wrote in an e-mail message.

"That's why it is considered a 'marker' -- it's not necessarily the cause of a problem but rather present in association with the problems it's considered a marker for," she wrote.

Shallcross also wrote that inflammation is how a body responds to injury or infection. Inflammation is an important component in the development of atherosclerosis, the formation of a plaque in arteries throughout the body, she wrote.

"Plaque formation [...] is a critical component of the ongoing disease process that narrows arteries leading to heart attacks and some forms of stroke," she wrote.

Researchers assigned the students in the study to one of three groups: Non-drinkers, meaning they consumed one or less drinks one day a week; moderate drinkers, who consumed two to five drinks of alcohol on a typical drinking day, one to two days a week; and heavy drinkers, who consumed three or more drinks at least three or more days a week or consumed five or more drinks in one sitting at least two or more days a week.

LaSalle said heavy drinkers were most at risk for heart problems.

"Roughly 60 percent of our students meet the [heavy drinking] criteria. Potentially, a lot of students could be at risk for this later in life," she said. But the study also found that moderate drinkers actually had lower, healthier CRP readings than those who drank little or no alcohol.

"It has been shown in prior research that people who consume one serving of alcohol daily actually have a slightly lower risk of coronary heart disease than nondrinkers. So this new study's finding does appear to correlate with that," Shallcross wrote.

LaSalle, however, cautioned against overdoing it.

"Absolutely, drinking in moderation is always preferable to high-risk drinking, but I don't know that I would encourage anyone, particularly college students, to drink every day," she said.

LaSalle said the results of the study show that alcohol can be a variable in heart disease. "If people think about this now, they can actually prolong their life," she said.