The whole truth about the benefits of red wine

For those too lazy to read the whole article, a summary of:

• What is known about the benefits of wine: red wine in modest doses, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and prolong life. Modest doses - is one serving per day for women and two for men. However, red wine is not a magic wand. Because the alcohol in general - the cause of many diseases and premature death.
• What is unknown: there have been no randomized controlled trials of long-term effects of alcohol on the body. Namely such experiments - scientific standard. That is impossible to say with absolute certainty that alcohol has a direct impact on health. This applies to most of the habits that form a way of life. No one checked the methods of evidence-based medicine benefit and harm of smoking or physical education.
• What does it mean: If you do not have chronic disease and alcohol dependence (even defeated), a glass of wine can benefit. But if you have health problems, if you are predisposed to dependence, alcohol do more harm than help.

So where is the truth? Vox journalists analyzed more than 30 studies and interviewed five experts to understand, when alcohol is useful, and when the bad. For all and sundry to read, we translated the entire article.

Once scientists have adhered to the version that red wine is good. In the 1990s, researchers were puzzled: why the French little cardiovascular disease? And it provided, that the French were a lot of smoke and like fatty meat food. It has been suggested that the reason for red wine. This opinion was fixed for many yearsWine, alcohol, platelets, and the French paradox for coronary heart disease. .

Since then, science has moved forward, the researchers realized that this statement is not entirely accurate. Today, many experts say that a small amount of alcohol can all benefit. But there are those who with this totally disagree.

Scientific opinion on alcohol

Science refers to alcohol reserved. Any statement about how alcohol affects the health, can not be 100% correct, because in the world there are no studies that would meet modern standardsLiterature review current through: Nov 2016. .

The best way to find out how alcohol affects a person - to conduct a double-blind randomized study. This means that you must take two groups of subjects. One group every day for decades to drink a glass of red. Another group has to drink some wine imitation placebo (but do not suspect that this is not the wine). It is impossible and unlikely to ever be possible.

So now the two types of studies, though not such precise:

1. Checking the short-term effects of alcohol (such as the level of lipids in the blood). Unfortunately, they do not say anything about such studies distant future, about how alcohol is associated with heart disease. At best, it manages to make assumptions.
2. Observational study. Scientists interrogate and examine drinkers and non-drinkers over the years. But these groups differ not only in relation to alcohol. Therefore, it is difficult to determine exactly what the cause led to a particular effect. If wine lovers live longer lovers beer, To blame the beer? Or vinolyuby on average richer and better fed?

Studies are not useless. Scientists use them to learn all the habits related to lifestyle: physical education, smoking (hard to imagine, double-blind study conducted in cigarettes harm some perverted world). In the end, these studies paint a clear picture, but nothing like we have. We see, what do we know about red wine and alcohol in general.

Alcohol in moderation useful?

Looks like it. A small amount of alcohol - one drink a day for women and two for men - will benefit, albeit with reservations. For example, the US National Institutes of Health says that amount of alcohol is not small, and medium-sizedDrinking Levels Defined. .

About how much you can drink and what is considered the norm, we have already written here. One serving - it is 14 grams of pure alcohol. Such a dose contains 350 Beer ml of 5% strength, 45 ml or 150 ml of vodka, wine strength of 12%.

What is the use of alcohol?

In short-term studiesEffects of moderate alcohol consumption on platelet aggregation, fibrinolysis, and blood lipids. We studied the effect of alcohol on the physiology. It was found that alcohol increases good cholesterolEffect of alcohol consumption on biological markers associated with risk of coronary heart disease. and reduces the likelihood of blood clots, thins the blood that isThe effects of alcohol on coagulation and fibrinolytic factors: a controlled trial. .

In long-term studiesMortality in relation to consumption of alcohol. Where compared drinkers and non-drinkers, the results are more accurate: healthier one who drinks, but very little. Surprisingly, these people are less likely to suffer from heart diseaseAlcohol drinking and mortality among men enrolled in an American Cancer Society prospective study. and live longerChanges in alcohol intake and mortality. . Those who drink moderately, rarely suffer from diabetesEffect of alcohol consumption on diabetes mellitus. And this is another factor for heart disease risk (although on this point the output is not obvious).

This important discovery. Cardiovascular disease - the main cause of mortality in the world. But remember that this is just observation: the results of factors that are not taken into account could affect scientists. Paganini Hill notes that people with chronic diseases are beginning to drink less, and even that could change the course of the study.

Alcohol is not a magic elixir healing. Kenneth Mukamal, PhD from Harvard, believes that moderate doses of alcohol help only under certain conditions. He says that the use of alcohol is shown if we look at the statistics for heart disease and diabetes, only for him.

At the same time alcohol harmAlcohol Consumption and Breast Cancer Risk in the Women's Health Study. . For example, increases the risk of breast cancer among womenModerate alcohol consumption during adult life. .

Red wine is more useful than other alcoholic beverages?

Apparently not. Scientists have found no evidence that one alcoholic drink useful to others.

"In the study,Type of alcohol consumed, changes in intake over time and mortality. we did not see a difference in how the wine, beer or spirits affect mortality, - says Paganini Hill. - In some of the small differences found in the other we found the benefits of red wine, in the third - the beer. There are even studies that have shown advantages of spirits. "

Mukamal agrees: "It's not a red wine as such, but how much to drink at all. The best indicators of health of those who drink often, but never - a lot. " In one of the largest researchRoles of Drinking Pattern and Type of Alcohol Consumed in Coronary Heart Disease in Men. participated more than 40,000 health care workers in the United States. Red wine was the last in the list with respect to beneficial for heart alcohol and beer lovers, and something stronger were healthier than wine fans.

All the hype about the red wine grows from the observation that the French drink it oftenCorrelates of alcoholic beverage preference: traits of persons who choose wine, liquor or beer. And suffer a little. This phenomenon is called the French Paradox. Although researchers do not say that this paradox - the absolute truth.

Moreover, researchers have carefully studied the composition of red wine, to find there are special compounds that might explain the longevity of the French. But we found nothing conclusive.

Red wine - the combination of several ingredients: ethanol (alcohol), water, sugar, and a dye. The colorant contained in the polyphenolic compoundsBioavailability of the Polyphenols: Status and Controversies. . These are substances of natural origin, they are found in plants.

For example, resveratrol (a polyphenol, an antioxidant) is present in the grape skins. Because red wine is fermented longer than white (ie next drink longer saturated with substances from the grapes), resveratrol in it anymore.

It seems that everything is clear: the benefits of red wine in resveratrol. But the substance is unremarkable. Studies in mice have shown that resveratrol may slow agingResveratrol improves health and survival of mice on a high-calorie diet. and improve metabolismIf the animal is eating a lot of fat.

But a person needs to drink 1000 liters of red wine at a time to receive a dose equivalent to that administered to the mice. And when the researchers studied the content of resveratrol in the body of centenariansResveratrol Levels and All-Cause Mortality in Older Community-Dwelling Adults. , It did not find any connection between life expectancy and the substance.

After all, scientists have decided that all the benefits of red wine is stored directly in ethanol, which is in the beer, and vodka.

Alcohol thins the blood and raises the level of good cholesterol, but so does any alcohol. All the advantages of red wine for health come only from ethanol.

Kenneth Mukamal

Mukamal also notes that polyphenols have beneficial properties, but they are also easy to get if you drink grape juice and tea, eat berries, olive oil, or chocolate with high cocoa content.

When alcohol becomes harmful?

The rule is simple: do not drink more than two drinks per day for men, no more than one for women. Not three, not five - this is overkill.

Researchers agree that if you overfulfils rate on alcohol, the negative effects negate all the benefits. Addicted to drinking reduces life leads to obesity, Cirrhosis, pancreatitis, and various types of cancer - tumors of the esophagus, liver, larynx, intestines. Alcohol is addictive with all the ensuing consequences.

In addition, the benefit to the health of the heart, which was mentioned above, disappears if exceed the minimal dose of alcohol. Due to the large number of binge raises pressure weakens the heart muscles, heart failure develops. Therefore, most medical organizations do not recommend alcohol for the prevention of diseases of the cardiovascular system.

Because of this, doctors and scientists do not support the dissemination of information about the use of alcohol.

Around information about the benefits of wine too much noise. Wine does not harm with minimum consumption, and this fact is enough to exclude alcohol from living fully. But foolish to turn a drink into a means of disease prevention, as well as pay attention to the color of the wine. In alcohol more minuses than pluses.

John Ioannidis

Kenneth Mukamal also says that exercise has the same effect, as small amounts of alcohol, only better, "Short-term Alcohol effects are noticeable but ethanol affects only the heart and diabetes, and exercise improves the condition of the whole organism. "

The dose of booze - the question is individual. Some can not drink at all because of the condition of the body or the propensity to addiction. Doubt? Then just do not start.