“Is it true that a glass of wine everyday can prevent heart problems?”
I read a recent article that mentioned having red wine everyday can help in reducing the risk of a heart attack by almost 70%. Is this true? Cardiovascular problems run in my family, so anyway to prevent it for me would be great.
6 Answers
Red wine consumption in limited quantities has been shown to benefit coronary artery disease prevention. It is not 70%. If you have family history you should get proper check up.
Mark Rasak
Cardiologist
No
For females, 6 units weekly, males 10-12 units weekly of red wine is all one should drink. 1 unit is half a glass. Resveratrol (cardioprotective) is contained in some red wine, not all. Dark chocolate has it, too. Yes, one can absolutely prevent coronary artery disease; the sooner you begin, the better. Never too early or too late.
Wine has little or no benefit but statins are much more likely to help prevent cardiovascular problems, plus treating even slight hypertension – BP more than 130/80 (and, obviously, not smoking or getting overweight).
A glass a day of red wine may be helpful but nothing like 70%! In any case, I would not rely on red wine to prevent heart attacks. Controlling cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, weight are more important and exercising regularly and eating a heart-healthy diet and allowing time for relaxation and stress reduction are crucial lifestyle modifications that can help prevent the progression of atherosclerosis. It is hard to understand the “French paradox” related to red wine. My guess is that it is not related to the wine but to the very different and less stressful lives that French people live as compared to US inhabitants. Some people think it is related to the resveratrol in the wine and there are a lot of people making a lot of money off this illusion, which is not to say that resveratrol is bad but only to say what I have noted above, it is not the main course to follow to prevent heart attacks.
Julia G. Ansari
Cardiologist
That’s definitely not true. If there was anything that was reducing the risk of heart disease by 70%, the FDA would be approving it and heart attacks would not remain the number one cause of death in the United States. Red wine is associated with increasing HDL, which is your good cholesterol, but recent studies have not shown that raising the good cholesterol is as important as reducing the bad cholesterol.
