Many studies have shown that a couple glasses of red wine can be good for your heart health. Does this sound too good to be true? Researchers have set out to find the truth in this.
The alleged benefits of consuming red wine have been credited to being heart healthy because of its richness in antioxidants, it lowers LDL cholesterol, controls blood sugar, keeps a sharp mind, can help with weight loss, can fight off colds and may prevent cancer. Wine isn’t the only type of alcohol that seems to be good for your mind. Researchers from the University of Illinois in Chicago found that men who have consumed beer are smarter than their sober counterparts by 40%.
Even with this damning evidence, researchers from London are challenging the predisposition that a little alcohol can be beneficial to your health. After analyzing data from over 260,000 people, the researchers were able to conclude that those who consumed less alcohol have better heart health. The findings have led the researchers to believe, and suggest, that reducing alcohol intake will result in improved cardiovascular health.
“For many years, many people have been uneasy about the apparent cardio protective effect of drinking light-to-moderate amounts of alcohol, said Dr. Caroline Dale, study co-author and Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “This is partly because of reservations about possible bias in existing observational evidence, but also because the biological mechanism behind such a cardio-protective effect has proved elusive. In our study, we approach the question from a different perspective using a Mendelian randomization study design, and find quite different results. We found that people who tend to drink lower amounts of alcohol on average had lower risk of coronary heart disease at all levels of alcohol consumption, including amongst those who were light-to-moderate drinkers. As such our findings challenge the status quo that drinking low-to-moderate amounts of alcohol is good for your heart.”
Like many things that we enjoy in life, there are positives and negative. While more research is being performed on this topic, remember moderation is always the key.