Too much alcohol of any type is bad for a person's health, but some booze is more harmful than others, a new study says.

Beer, cider and liquor all appear to increase people's risk of an early death, even at low levels of imbibing, researchers are slated to report Saturday at a meeting in New Orleans of the American College of Cardiology.

On the other hand, moderate wine drinkers had a 21% lower risk of death from heart disease, researchers found.

"Even low to moderate intake of spirits, beer or cider is linked to higher mortality, while low to moderate intake of wine may carry lower risk," said senior researcher Dr. Zhangling Chen, a professor at the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in China.

"Taken together, these factors suggest that the type of alcohol, how it is consumed and the associated lifestyle behaviors all contribute to the observed differences in mortality risk," Chen said in a news release.

For the study, researchers tracked the health and drinking habits of nearly 341,000 participants in the UK Biobank, a long-term health research project in the United Kingdom.

People filled out a dietary questionnaire when they entered the study, and were categorized based on their alcohol intake:

• Men consuming between 20 grams per week and 20 grams per day and women consuming between 20 grams per week and 10 grams per day were considered to have low alcohol consumption.

• Daily consumption of 20 to 40 grams (about one-and-a-half to three standard drinks) for men and 10 to 20 grams for women was considered moderate.

• Daily consumption of more than 40 grams for men and 20 grams for women was considered high. Health outcomes were tracked for over 13 years on average.

For reference, there are about 14 grams of pure alcohol in a 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine and a 1.5-ounce shot of spirits, researchers said.

People with high alcohol consumption were 24% more likely to die prematurely from any cause; 36% more likely to die from cancer; and 14% more likely to die from heart disease when compared to those who drank little to none, results showed.

Only mild to moderate wine drinking was associated with any protective effect on health, researchers found.

Even low intake of spirits, beer or cider was linked to a 9% increased risk of dying from heart disease, the study said.

"Our findings help clarify previously mixed evidence on low to moderate alcohol consumption," Chen said. "These findings can help refine guidance, emphasizing that the health risks of alcohol depend not only on the amount of alcohol consumed, but also on the type of beverage."

Certain compounds in red wine have been shown to potentially have benefits for heart health, researchers said.

Wine also is more likely to be consumed with meals, and by people who have heathier diets and lifestyles, researchers noted.

On the other hand, liquor, beer and cider are more likely to be consumed between meals and by folks who have worse diets, less exercise and other risk factors like smoking, researchers said.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.