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Red wine seems to have even more heart-healthy benefits than do other types of alcohol, but it’s possible that red wine isn’t any better than beer, white wine or liquor for heart health. There’s still no clear evidence that red wine is better than other forms of alcohol when it comes to possible heart-healthy benefits.
Health Benefits and Health Risks. Wine, especially the red variety, has been studied extensively over many years with impressive findings suggesting it may promote a longer lifespan, protect against certain cancers, improve mental health, and provide benefits to the heart.
The Benefit: Promotes Longevity
The Evidence: Wine drinkers have a 34 percent lower mortality rate than beer or spirits drinkers. Source: a Finnish study of 2,468 men over a 29-year period, published in the Journals of Gerontology, 2007.
The Benefit: Reduces Heart-Attack Risk
The Evidence: Moderate drinkers suffering from high blood pressure are 30 percent less likely to have a heart attack than nondrinkers. Source: a 16-year Harvard School of Public Health study of 11,711 men, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 2007.
The Benefit: Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
The Evidence: Red-wine tannins contain procyanidins, which protect against heart disease. Wines from Sardinia and southwest France have more procyanidins than other wines. Source: a study at Queen Mary University in London, published in Nature, 2006.
The Benefit: Reduces Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
The Evidence: Moderate drinkers have 30 percent less risk than nondrinkers of developing type 2 diabetes. Source: research on 369,862 individuals studied over an average of 12 years each, at Amsterdam’s VU University Medical Center, published in Diabetes Care, 2005.
The Benefit: Lowers Risk of Stroke
The Evidence: The possibility of suffering a blood clot?related stroke drops by about 50 percent in people who consume moderate amounts of alcohol. Source: a Columbia University study of 3,176 individuals over an eight-year period, published in Stroke, 2006.
The Benefit: Cuts Risk of Cataracts
The Evidence: Moderate drinkers are 32 percent less likely to get cataracts than nondrinkers; those who consume wine are 43 percent less likely to develop cataracts than those drinking mainly beer. Source: a study of 1,379 individuals in Iceland, published in Nature, 2003.
The Benefit: Cuts Risk of Colon Cancer
The Evidence: Moderate consumption of wine (especially red) cuts the risk of colon cancer by 45 percent. Source: a Stony Brook University study of 2,291 individuals over a four-year period, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2005.
The Benefit: Slows Brain Decline
The Evidence: Brain function declines at a markedly faster rate in nondrinkers than in moderate drinkers. Source: a Columbia University study of 1,416 people, published in Neuroepidemiology, 2006.
Resveratrol has been shown to reduce inflammation in animal studies as well as increase the life span of mice. And in people, it has been suggested that consuming high levels of resveratrol through supplements might reduce cholesterol levels and have other heart and anti-cancer benefits. But few studies have looked at whether resveratrol has benefits at the levels typically found in the human diet.
“The thinking was that certain foods are good for you because they contain resveratrol,” study researcher Dr. Richard Semba, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement. “We didn’t find that at all.”
But red wine, dark chocolate and grapes may still be good for the heart and have other benefits, Semba said. However, the benefits may not be due to resveratrol, he added.
Recent research, however, has shown that antioxidants aren’t the answer after all. Alcohol-the ethanol itself-raises levels of protective HDL, or good cholesterol, which help protect against plaque buildup in the arteries and reduce clotting factors that contribute to heart attack and stroke, according to Eric Rimm, ScD, associate professor of nutrition at the School of Public Health at Harvard University. Any kind of beverage that contains alcohol, when consumed in moderation (and that means one to two drinks a day), helps reduce heart disease risk.
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Forty-four percent of the adult U.S.population (age 18 and over) are current drinkers who have con-sumed at least 12 drinks in the preceding year (Dawson et al. 1995). Although most people who drink do so safely, the minority who consume alcohol heavily produce an impact that ripples outward to encompass their families, friends, and communities. The following statistics
give a glimpse of the magnitude of problem drinking:
- Aproximately 14 million Americans-7.4 percent of the population-meet the diagnostic
criteria for alcohol abuse or alcoholism.
- More than one-half of American adults have a close family member who has or has had alcoholism ( Dawson and Grant 1998).
- Measuring the Health Risks and Benefits of Alcohol Over the years, scientists have docu-
mented the effects of alcohol on many of the body’s organ systems and its role in the development of a variety of medical problems, including cardiovascular diseases, liver cirrhosis, and fetal abnormalities. Alcohol use and abuse also contribute to injuries, automobile collisions, and violence. Alcohol can markedly affect worker productivity and absenteeism, family interactions, and school performance, and it can kill, directly or indirectly. On the strength of this evidence, the United States and other countries have expended considerable effort throughout this century to develop and refine effective strategies to limit the negative impact of alcohol (Bruun et al. 1975; Ed w a rd set al. 1994).
In the past two decades, however, a growing number of epidemiologic studies have documented an association between alcohol consumption and lower risk for coronary heart disease (CHD), the leading cause of death in many developed countries (Chadwick and Goode 1998; Criqui 1996
A,b; Zakhari 1997). Much remains to be learned about this association, the extent to which it is due specifically to alcohol and not to other associated lifestyle factors, and what the biological
mechanisms of such an effect might be.
Effects on Physical Health: Cardiovascular diseases account for more deaths among Americans than any other group of diseases. Several large prospective studies have re p o rt e d a reduced risk of death from CHD across a wide range of alcohol consumption levels. These include studies among men in the United Kingdom (Doll et al. 1994), Germany (Keil et al. 1997)/
Editor’s note: Dr. Conway McLean is a podiatric physician now practicing foot and ankle medicine in the Upper Peninsula, having assumed the practice of Dr. Ken Tabor. McLean has lectured internationally on surgery and wound care, and is board certified in both, with a sub-specialty in foot orthotic therapy. Dr. McLean welcomes questions, comments and suggestions at drcmclean@penmed.com.