Red Wine Protection For The Heart

Some possible reasons for alcohol’s benefits, not just in wine:

Alcohol boosts good type HDL cholesterol

Wine, especially red wine, is an anticoagulant

Alcohol relieves stress

Alcoholic beverages contain antioxidants

Although there’s some benefits in moderate drinking of any alcoholic beverages, research suggest wine reduces cardiovascular disease better than distilled spirits or beer.

French have 1/3 fewer heart attacks than Irishman and yet they drink the same amount of alcohol. The main difference seems  to be that the Frenchmen  drink mainly red wine, the Irish drink more hard liquor.

It’s true that red wine acts an anticoagulant. Thus French health authorities suggest that wine consumed along with fatty meals  counteracts the fat hazard.

Fatty foods tend to make the blood more sluggish so it’s more likely to clot and plug arteries. Wine may thwart that process.

But, again, the scientists caution the wine drinking  should be regular and ‘moderate’ – no more than two or three four-ounce glass of wine a day.

What Constitutes a Unit

You don’t get the same health benefits from drinking beer or liquor, it does seem that wine for heart disease is the best protection. Flavonols and bioflavonoids found in grapes and grape skins have numerous heart-healthy effects.

For instance, they increase nitric oxide production in artery cells, oxide production in artery cells, which help blood vessels to dilate and block production in artery cells, which help blood vessels to dilate and block production of other chemicals that can lead to build-up of plaque on artery walls.

Flavonoids  in red wine appear to be even  more effective than vitamin E for preventing LDL cholesterol oxidation and they also work effectively at preventing blood clots.

Bottom Line:

If you already drink  wine, a regular dose of a drink or two a day, especially of wine with meals, may act as antidote to heart diseases, but if you don’t already use alcohol, don’t  start drinking wine for heart disease protection, because the dangers can well outweigh the benefits.

If you drink more than two units a day, or one if you are a woman, cut down.

Heavy drinking harms your heart and your general health and boosts chances of death.

Thanks,

Health- February-2013